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B. L. Zimm, Sculptor 
THE WHITE MAN'S PILOT, SACAJAWEA, AND BAPTISTE. WHO ACCOM- 
PANIED LEWIS AND CLARK ACROSS THE CONTINENT 



THE PA TIIBEEAKERS 

from RI\ ER to OCEAN 



THE STORY OF THE GREAT WEST FROM THE 
TIME OF ( ORONADO TO THE PRESENT 



GRACE RAYMOND HEBARD, Ph. D. 

Professor of Political Economy, Statf. University of Wyoming. 
Author of "History and Government of Wyoming." 



Four Maps aiid Numerous Illustrations 






CHICAGO 

THE LAKESIDE PRESS 

1911 






CoPYRirTHTKn, 1911, 
BY 

GKACK RAYMOND IIEBARD 

AND 

E. V. McGINMS 






W\)t ILnktsitst ^rf28 

R. R. DONNELLKY & SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



C'CI.A2D?:374 



TO MY FRIEND, 

DOCTOR AGNES M. WERGELAND 

A PATHBREAKER 



PREFACE 

Multitudes of books have been written for jjupils of our schools 
recording the valiant deeds of the explorers who have made their field 
of operation east of the Mississippi. De Soto, Smith, Marquette, Clark, 
Boone and the many adventurous heroes who plied up and down all of 
the streams between the mighty river and the ocean to the East, have 
received, each in turn, due attention, and their deeds have not only 
been recorded upon the pages of books but written in the hearts of 
the American 3'ouths. The West, or that land situated between the 
Mississippi and the western coast, has not received its due attention 
in school book form. To enable the future citizens, particularly those 
who live in the states carved out of this story-making territory, to 
familiarize themselves w^ith the brave deeds of these earliest inhabitants 
in an unsettled and unorganized territory is the purpose of this publica- 
tion. No territory or period of history so abounds in heroic deeds, 
daring adventures, and hazardous enterprises which have directly 
served to bring about civilization as the region known as the Great 
West. The tale is not only interesting but fascinating from the earliest 
beginning to the present day. The turbulent streams, the rugged and 
forbidding mountains, the limitless plains, the hostile natives, and the 
extremes of climate made the struggle a hard one, and demanded men 
of courage who had faith in themselves and the object of their con- 
quests. The wonderful story is too long to appear between the covers 
of any one book, yet the hope is expressed that the facts assembled may 
awaken a new interest in the labors of those untiring climbers of streams 
and mountains who made that undeveloped countrj^ a part of our 
present-day possessions. If this is accomplished the labor of preparing 
the book will be abundantly rewarded. 

The author is indebted for valuable corrections and suggestions to 

vii 



viii PREFACE 

Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, Messrs. O. D. Wheeler, Owen Wistcr, and 
Emerson Hough, whose Hterary works have done so much to create a 
just estimate of the West and its frontier hfe; but on these authors 
rests no responsibility for any inaccuracies that may be found in the 
text. Further mention of gratitude should be made to Mr. E. F. 
McGinnis for helpful ideas in outlining the work; to Mr. Frank Bond, 
Chief of the Drafting Division of the General Land Office, for assistance 
in the preparation of the trail maps; and to co-workers. Dr. A. I\I. 
Wergeland and Dr. J. E. Downey, for encouragement in the work and 
for friendly criticism. Grace Raymond Hebard. 

University of Wyoming, 
Laramie, Jul}-, 191L 



CONTEXTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. THE EARLY EXPLORERS 1 

1 — CoRONADO. 2 — The Verendryes. 3 — Lewis and 
Clark. 4 — Zebulon Pike. 

IL THE FUR TRADERS 45 

1 — The Missouri River ]\Iex. 2 — Astoria. 3 — 
The Rocky Mountain Fur Company. 4 — The 
American Fur Company. 

in. THE GREAT TRAILS 76 

1 — The Santa Fe Trail. 2 — The Gila Route and 
THE Old Spanish Trail. 3 — The Oregon Trail. 
4 — The Great Salt Lake and California Trails. 

IV. THE MISSIONS 98 

1 — The Catholics in the Southwest. 2 — The 
Methodists in Oregon. 3 — Whitman and Spal- 
ding. 4 — Father De Smet. 5 — The Mormons 
in Utah. 

V. FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 133 

1 — The Wind River Mountain Exploration, LS42-43. 
2^-Great Salt Lake, Columbia River and 
California, 1843-44. 3— The Mexican War, 
1845-47. 4 — The First Private Venture, 
1848-49. 5— The Last Expedition, 1853-54. 

VI. THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 156 

1 — California. 2 — Nevada. 3 — Colorado. 4 — 
Montana. 5 — Idaho. 6 — The Freight, Express 
AND Stage Lines, and the Pony Express. 

VII. THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER .181 

1 — The Bozeman Trail. 2 — The Cheyenne L^prising. 
3 — The Apaches. 4 — The Sioux. 5 — Chief 
Joseph. 6 — The Utah Indians. 7 — The Modocs. 
ix 



X CONTENTS 

Vni. COWS AND COWBOYS 209 

1 — The Long Drive. 2 — The Cowboy. 

IX. THE RAILROADS 225 

1 — The Preliminary Surveys. 2 — The Union- 
Central Pacific. 3 — The Southern Pacific 
AND the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rail- 
roads. 4 — The Northern Pacific. 5 — The 
Great Northern*. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY ........ 255 

INDEX 2.59 



THE PATHBREAKERS 
from RIVER to OCEAN 



THE PATHBEEAKERS FEOM ElYER TO 

OCEAN 



CHAPTER I 

THE EARLY EXPLORERS 

L CoRONADo 3. Lewis and Clark 

2. The Verexdryes 4. Zebulon Pike 

1. CORONADO 

No narrative of the early explorers of southwestern North 
America would be complete without some mention of Cor- 
onado, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, seeker of the ''Seven 
Cities of Cibola." To prepare the way for an account of his 
exploits it is needful that you recall the journeys of Cordova 
to Central America and the quantities of golden ornaments 
he found among the natives there, the wanderings of Narvaez 
from Florida northwestward, the escape of his treasurer, 
Cabeza de Vaca, his wanderings through what is now Texas, 
his return to the Spaniards in Mexico with tales of cities of 
marvelous wealth in the interior, and, finally, the conquest 
of Mexico by the brilhant Cortez. 

In 1539, Coronado was made provisional governor of 
Nueva GaUcia (New Gaul), by Antonio de Mendoza, 
viceroy of Mexico. This Viceroy Mendoza, who had been 
filled w^ith enthusiasm over the accounts that Cabeza de 
Vaca had brought home, urged Coronado to take charge of 
his province at once and to explore the unkno^\^l country to 
the north immediately. Coronado, with the spirit of ad- 

1 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



1 



venture in his blood, was equal to the task and was eager to 
be off. 

The army was financed from the personal wealth of Coro- 
nado and what he could borrow, though the command of 
the soldiers was granted to him by the viceroy. The ex- 
pense of equipping the expedition was about two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars, or sixty thousand ducats. If Coro- 




From an old cut 

THE STYLE OF CANNON USED BY CORTEZ AND CORONADO 

nado did not succeed in his high ambition, — the loss was his. 
If he won, — he was dizzy with the vision of the empires he was 
to conquer and own. He would have wealth greater than 
that of Cortez, and lands unlimited. 

Early in 1540, piloted by a monk, Fray Marcos, who had 
previously penetrated to the Zuni Villages, he started with 
three hundred horsemen, foot soldiers, crossbow men, arque- 
busiers, eight hundred Indians, and a thousand extra horses 
for ammunition and baggage. 

Northward through tril^es more or less hostile they 
marched, near the present site of Tombstone, Arizona, on to 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 3 

Salt River, north across the Mogollon Mountains, then north- 
east to the Little Colorado. Here the first station of their 
travels was reached, the Zuni Pueblos. We are told that 
the city of Zuni is the home of a people who lived there 
centuries before the coming of Columbus. ''There they 
still live, with very little change. The march of progress 
that has swept away other Indian tribes has spared the 




AXCIEXT CLIFF RUINS NEAR SANTA FE 



lonely little pueblo communities in their adobe terraced 
houses, surrounded by the arid deserts." ^ 

These adobe terraces made excellent forts. Rising tier on 
tier to the height of three or sometimes four stories, with no 
doors, they covered with unbroken walls many acres, and 
presented a formidable front to the little army destitute of 
cannon with which to batter a breach. Ingress to these 
houses is had through the roof by aid of ladders. Upon the 
approach of the intruders, the Zuni had drawn up all their 

' Johnson. Pioneer Spaniards of North America. Little, Brown & Co. 



4 THE PATHBREAKERS 

ladders and ranged themselves on the terraces intent on de- 
fending their homes. Wood for the construction of new lad- 
ders was hard to obtain, and when the means of assault were 
finally provided it was no child's play to storm that fortress 
through the hail of arrows and stones from the warriors in 
the terraces. Coronado's shining armor and his foremost 




Gcortjc Whaiiun Jai 



' Iiiduiiis vf the Painted Desert Region' 
PUEBLO HOMES 



place in the assault made him an especial target. After the 
place was won he had gaping wounds on his face, an arrow in 
one of his feet, and many stone bruises on his legs and arms, 
and tells us that if it had not been for the strength of his 
armor ''it would have gone hard with me." But more bit- 
ter than the perils of the assault was the disappointment of 
the victors upon finding that here was no gold or precious 
stones, — none of the wealth they had marched and starved, 
fought and bled, to win. Evidently these were not the famed 
''Seven Cities of Cibola." They must be still farther on. 
So the conquerors passed on; scouts were sent in various 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 5 

directions, all bringing back similar reports of "no cities 
of gold." In August of this year, 1540, the famous Grand 
Canon of the Colorado was discovered by a division of 
the expedition under the command of Garcia Lopez de 
Cardenas. One often wonders if this Canon were the real 
**city of gold," for the discovery and possession of which 




Fro7n Tficvct's Lcs Singularitez 

THE EARLIEST KNOWN PICTURE OF A BUFFALO 

more than one continent wasted its blood and treasure. It 
would take no great stretch of the imagination to fancy that 
the glittering and sparkling mica-bearing formations re- 
sponding to the sun's rays were houses built of gold. The 
tradition of this city was not a dream. Some one had ob- 
served something. For want of better description the vision 
was called a ''city of gold." Was this the end of the rainbow 
with its proverbial ''pot of gold"? 

From this point the party pushed eastward. Had they 
gone west might they not have outstripped by three hundred 
years the "forty-niners" in their mad rush for gold? An 
Indian guide, named "Turk" by the Spaniards, told mar- 



6 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



velous tales of the untold wealth of the city of Quivira to the 
northeast. It was towards this city they were now pushing. 
We next find the army in the Staked Plains of Texas, or the 
Buffalo Plains. On these wide plains they encountered the 
^' humpbacked oxen." These buffalo had first been accurate- 
ly described to the European world by Vaca. They were 




RUINS OF ANCIENT CLIFF DWELLERS, NEAR SANTA Ffi 

also called ''cattle or cows of Cibola." Coronado obtained 
many buffalo robes from the inhabitants of his first con- 
quered village, and carried them to Spain on his return 
voyage. From here the band of explorers pushed up north 
through the land occupied now by Oklahoma, into Kansas, 
well toward the north central part of the state. After trav- 
eling for forty-five days with thirty of his best mounted 
horsemen, Coronado decided that it was useless to go farther. 
He had found the city a village of straw huts, the people 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 7 

more savage than any other they had met. The sight of 
these villages and of the immense plains with their countless 
herds of ''horned oxen" was the only reward of his labors. 
There was no alternative but to return. Defeated and de- 
jected the little army journeyed back to Mexico, presenting 
a picture not unlike that of the defeated Napoleon and his 
army on their return from Russia. Less than half of the in- 
vaders returned to tell the story of defeated ambition, one 
hundred and fifty leaving their bones to bleach on the plains 
and the mountain sides. 

In the fall of 1542 the explorer arrived at the City of 
Mexico ''very sad and very weary, completely worn out and 
shamefaced." Was the expedition a failure? He had not 
found a single thing for which he had sought. He returned 
empty handed; fame and money were gone. But History 
will say that he did much toward the finding of that vast 
country east of the Colorado River from the Grand Caiion to 
Gulf of Cahfornia, and all of those countless miles of prairie 
extending northward to the southern boundary of Nebraska, 
and possibly even into that State. To Coronado must we 
accord the place of the first "early explorer" of those lands 
situated between the Mississippi River and the Pacific 
Ocean. 

2. THE VERENDRYES 

Two centuries after Coronado had made his unsuccessful 
attempt a French Canadian and his sons endeavored to find 
a northwest passage to the Mer' de I'Ouest, or Pacific Ocean. 
The journey was not to be one entirely of discovery and con- 
quest for the French nation; combined with the desire for 
exploration there was the purpose to grow wealthy through 
the finding of new and rich trapping-grounds. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were per- 
sistent rumors of a river that flowed toward the Sea of the 
West. The Indians pointed toward the setting sun, de- 



8 THE PATHBREAKERS 

daring that there was a river that throbbed with a pulse 
that was frightening just before it emptied into a Great 
Lake, the waters from w^hich were salty and undrinkable. 
They told further of a strange people who wore iron dresses 
and rode on horseback. But there was no exact knowledge 
of this mighty westward-flowing stream, nor of those strange 
iron-dressed warriors. The river was doubtless the Colum- 
bia, known by the natives before the time of Lewis and Clark. 
The warriors? Might they not have been some of the 
Spaniards from Mexico who, more daring than the others, 
had pushed up farther north than any page of history re- 
cords? At this time the Western Sea was supposed to lie 
somewhere between America and Japan. The Pacific Ocean 
was supposed to limit the western boundary of the domain of 
the Sioux Indians, but no definite information could be 
obtained. Everyone was questioned on the subject but 
with no satisfactory results. ''The missionaries and the 
officers had nothing to tell; the voyagers and Indians knew 
no more than they, and invented confused and contradictory 
falsehoods to hide their ignorance." ^ 

By the authority of the Duke of Orleans, companies were 
allowed to organize to attempt to discover the long-sought 
route to the Pacific. Their duties were twofold : to establish 
missions among the Sioux where the missionaries could learn 
the language of the Indians and thus get more information 
about the unknown, hazy sea; and to establish a monopoly 
of the Sioux fur trade. After the failure of others it was 
left to Pierre Gaultier de Varrennes de la Verendrye and his 
sons to explore to the west as far as the Big Horn Mountains. 
Pierre was the son of Rene Gaultier de Varrennes, a trader 
in furs near the head of Lake Superior. He took in addition 
the name La Verendrye. The center of his trading was 
north of Lake Superior, in which locality he heard the tradi- 
tion of the Western Sea. ''These people are Hars," he is 

1 Purknian. A Ilalf-Contury of Conflict. Little, Brown & Co. 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 9 

reported to have said, ''but now and then they tell the truth." 
He petitioned the King of France, Louis XV, for aid in or- 
ganizing a company to search for this ocean. This aid could 
not be obtained, but Verendrye was authorized to build forts 
along the route, and to have a monopoly of the fur trade with 
the Indians who inhabited the territory toward the Western 
Sea. Knowing to his sorrow the fierceness of the Sioux, the 
"tigers of the plains," Verendrye determined upon a route 
farther to the north into the haunts of the Assinniboines and 
the Cristineaux, mortal foes of the savage Sioux, who hunted 
and trapped as far north as the country now known as Mani- 
toba. 

The starting-point of Verendrye's expedition was Mon- 
treal; the date, June 8, 1731; the men, Verendrye, his three 
sons, a nephew, La Jemeraye, and a number of Canadians; 
the object, the discovery of the Sea of the West, the aggran- 
dizement of the French nation, and the winning of great 
wealth and fame. But Fate seemed to have turned her hand 
against him. His youngest son, his nephew, and many of 
the Canadians were killed by the Indians. The financial 
support that he had reason to expect was not given; suppUes 
coming to him were lost or stolen on the way ; and no definite 
information as to the desired route could be obtained. 
Finally, the Assinniboines and the Cristineaux told him of a 
tribe of Indians living on the Missouri River "many moons" 
distant, who could guide him to the much coveted sea. In 
1738, October it was, Verendrye began his exploration to the 
west, arriving at the Mandan Villages three months after- 
wards. Here he found six villages of Indians.^ On account 

1 When Lewis and Clark visited these villages in 1804, they had been 
by that time reduced to two villages and had been moved up the river 
about fifty-five niiles from the original location. This migration was 
caused by the persecutions of the Sioux, who were the Mandans' 
mortal enemies, and smallpox, both of which had greatly reduced their 
numbers. 



10 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



of the desertion of his interpreter and the loss of the luggage 
containing the trinkets indispensable for trading with the 
Indians, Verendrye was obliged to retrace his steps to Fort 

LaReineearlyin 
1739. Ill health 
combined with 
the trials and ex- 
posure endured 
in this western 
trail made it im- 
possible for the 
elder Verendrye 
to make another 
attempt to reach 
the mythical sea. 
In the spring 
of 1742, his sons, 
Pierre and the 
Chevalier, with 
two Canadians, 
again visited the 
Mandan Vil- 
lages. From 
here, in July, 
with two Man- 
dans in addition, 
the party pushed 
to the west- 
southwest between the upper Missouri and the Black Hills. 
Game of all kinds was encountered, including elk, moun- 
tain sheep, antelope, deer, wolves, and the ever-present 
prairie-dog. Far west, it may have been as far west 
as the Yellowstone River, the Mandan interpreter deserted 
the French brothers, leaving them with an unknown 




Fniin Md.rimiliu/i's Trac(i-'i. 

Courtesy of The Arthur II. Clark Co. 

A MANDAN CHIEF, MAT-TOPE, IN FULL DRESS 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 



11 



tribe of Indians in an equally unknown country. From 
here a western direction was taken, in the course of which 
march they met a band of Little Foxes, who with other 
tribes were in mortal terror of the much hated Snakes, or 
Shoshones, who Hved some distance toward the desired sea. 
Finally, after a journey of a few days to the southwest, they 




From Maximilian's Travels 

INTERIOR OF A MANDAN HUT 

came to the Bow Indians, who knew of the coveted sea only 
through information given to them by captive Snakes. 
East, west, and east again they journeyed, until on New 
Year's day, 1743, they sighted the Big Horn Mountains, a 
branch of the Rockies, somewhere near the present Yellow- 
stone National Park in the present state of Wyoming. They 
came within one hundred twenty miles of this museum of 
nature. From here they went south on Shoshone River, down 
to Wind River (in the central part of Wyoming), where the 
natives told them of Green River beyond the mountains. 
To the Verendryes belongs the credit of being the first white 



12 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



men to see the Rocky, or '^Shining/' Mountains. Here 
ended their journey westward. Turning their faces to the 
east, after many long weeks of travel they reached Montreal 

in May, 1744, 
having spent 
eleven years 
seeking to find 
the waters 
chat Lewis and 
Clark reached 
more than a 
half-century 
afterward. 

Their journey 
was a failure in 
the same sense 
that Corona- 
do's was. They 
gfc *^ H did not find 

^^1^ V ^ ''^ ***«'*»^^H? that for which 

k ^^^^^^'^^I^^B^tofiii^K' they sought, 

|L ^l^lfe^mi^lK ^^^ they were 

H\ ^%i?^i^^^^^K. ^^^ pioneer ex- 

W W ^ BfcfciSWBBl plorers of the 

northwest as 
was Coronado 
of the south- 
west. They left 
a lost trail to be remade by others of another century. Had 
the Verendryes gone less than one hundred miles farther south 
they might have discovered South Pass, the great gateway in 
the path to the West at the end of which was the much desired 
^'Sea of the West." Like Coronado, their dream of many 
years was not realized, and they faced defeat, obscurity, and 




From Maxiinilian's Travels 

A LITTLE FOX INDL\N, WAKUSASSE 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 13 

poverty. These are some of the rewards that come to the 
pathbreakers whose dreams become a reahty for the next 
generation. Somewhere, not far from the present southern 
boundary of South Dakota, lies buried in the soil and rocks 
a leaden plate bearing the arms and inscription of the King of 
France. This was placed there by the Verendryes to com- 
memorate their expedition, a monument to French enterprise. 



3. LEWIS AND CLARK 

La Salle's dream was that there was a waterway from the 
region of the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and 
Clark made his dream a reality. Where the Verendryes 
failed, Lewis and Clark led a triumphant march. A land 
route was discovered to the Pacific, the river flowing to the 
sea definitely located, and the western boundary of the 
United States transferred from the Mississippi and Missouri 
rivers to the Pacific coast. 

Louisiana, the purchase of which was made by the United 
States from Napoleon, was a vast, unbounded wilderness 
west of the Mississippi. This land first belonged to France 
by the right of discovery, through the exploration of the 
Jesuit Missionaries, Fathers Marquette and Hennepin, and 
especially through the efforts of the brave La Salle. In 1682 
La Salle took possession of the land down the Mississippi to 
the Gulf of Mexico in the name of Louis XIV of France, and 
named it Louis-i-anne. Spain took possession of this terri- 
tory in 1763, and the United States in 1795 entered into a very 
indefinite and unsatisfactory treaty with Spain in regard to 
the use of the mouth of the Mississippi, the site of the present 
New Orleans. Spain possessed both sides of the river at its 
mouth, and controlled the western shore to its source. The 
denial of the free use of the highway was a real and serious 
injury to the frontier people. The Americans asked only 




MAP I. THE PATHS OF THE EARLY EXPLORERS 

-O-O-O Coronado, 1540, Carver, 1766-68 

VVVVV Tho Verendrves, 1742-44. - -:<-X Pike, 18C5. 

O O O O O Lewis and Clark, 18C4-C6. H H H H H Hunt, 1810-12. 

X X X X X Lewisto Maria's river. -•-•-•- Smith, 1820-29. 

= = = == Lewis and Clark cut off on return. 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 15 

that they might have free use of the river as a highway, and 
a small area at its mouth where they might deposit their 
produce preparatory to transshipment to the Atlantic and 
European ports. Spain's refusal to grant the request al- 
most brought on war. 

The treaty of 1795 was only a temporary arrangement 
that at its best was most uncertain. Rumors of war, of a 
desire to take the mouth of the Mississippi by force, of the 
discontent arising from conditions which hindered the 
growth and prosperity of all of those who were dependent 
upon the navigation of that river, caused the authorities at 
Washington much anxiety. The bold frontiersmen were de- 
manding in return for their allegiance, protection and aid 
from the United States. 

In 1802 Spain closed the mouth of the ''Father of Waters " 
to our products, thus virtually stopping the navigation of 
the river by the citizens of the United States. President 
Jefferson and his administration tried to plan ways and 
means by which the difficulty might be overcome. The 
President asked Congress to appropriate $2,000,000 for the 
purchase of New Orleans and West Florida from France, 
which had just acquired them again, a purchase which 
would carry with it the right to navigate the entire length 
of the Mississippi. Robert R. Livingston, one of the five to 
draft the Declaration of Independence, was at this time our 
minister to France. James Monroe in the early spring of 
1803 was sent to Paris as a special envoy to assist in the pur- 
chase of New Orleans. Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul 
of the Republic of France, was about to engage in a war with 
England, and, seeing that his enemy with her command of 
the sea could take Louisiana from him, he determined to sell 
the whole province. Barbe Marbois, Minister of the Treas- 
ury of the Republic of France, was given charge of negotia- 
ting the sale. These four statesmen, two of whom had taken 



16 THE PATHBREAKERS 

part in gaining our independence, two of whom were decid- 
edly conspicuous in the dramatic movements of the French 
Revolution, perfected an agreement by which all of Louisiana 
was to be added to the United States. Monroe and Liv- 
ingston had asked only for New Orleans and the mouth of 
the Mississippi. Napoleon with a majestic wave of his hand, 
pointing toward the west, said: ''I renounce Louisiana. 
It is not only New Orleans that I will cede. It is the whole 
country without reserve." The price was $15,000,000. 
The treaty was signed April 30, 1803; Congress ratified this 
November 3, 1803; the purchase was made December 17, 
1803, when Livingston exclaimed, ''We have lived long, but 
this is the noblest work of our lives." We have since learned 
that there were in the purchase 1,037,735 square miles, or 
about 664,150,000 acres. We paid, therefore, only two and 
one half cents an acre for the Louisiana Purchase. It has 
been said that this act was by far the greatest work of our 
Government during the years between the adoption of the 
Constitution and the outbreak of the Civil War. 

Technically, France did not occupy Louisiana at the time 
of the purchase. The transfer from Spain had never been 
made. France did not possess the province she was selling. 
The formality of surrender from Spain to France had to be 
accomplished before France could surrender the land to the 
United States. November 30, 1803, with proper ceremonies, 
the yellow and red flag of Spain was lowered at New Orleans 
and the keys of the Island turned over to the French Repre- 
sentative, who then raised the colors of France. Following 
this, on December 20, the Tricolor descended the same 
pole down which the Spanish colors had traveled twenty 
days before, and the Stars and Stripes ascended, denoting the 
end of the rule of France on American soil. 

Several years before the appropriation was made by 
Congress for the purchase of New Orleans, Jefferson, while 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 17 

Secretary of State in 1792, agitated the question of sending 
an exploring party to navigate the Missouri River to its 
source. He had a desire to extend commercial relations with 
the Indians, and to obtain for our country some of the riches 
of the region which were being monopolized by the traders 
from Canada. No one had the slightest conception of the 
vastness of the territory lying beyond the Mississippi. 
Robert Gray had sailed from Boston around the Cape to 
the Pacific in the ship Columbia, casting anchor in 1792 in 
the harbor of a river which he named Columbia. Many 
Enghsh and Yankee ships were at this early date gathering 
furs on the Pacific coast, and the region about Vancouver 
Island was well known; but the region between the Missis- 
sippi and the Pacific was utterly unknown save to a few 
daring trappers who had ascended the Missouri a thousand 
miles or so, and had set their traps in some of its tributaries. 
Jefferson at one time had made arrangements with a John 
Ledyard of Connecticut to explore the Northwest by travel- 
ing eastward through Siberia, shipping at Kamchatka for 
the Russian port Sitka, coming down the coast and so 
across country to the American settlements. Ledyard 
journeyed from Paris, through Germany, Sweden, and 
Northern Russia, even into Siberia. Here he was arrested 
and taken to Poland with threats of death if he again 
attempted the exploration. Time has proved that Russia 
was anxious to do what she prohibited Ledyard from doing. 
Still another attempt did Jefferson make to secure the 
exploration of this region when he persuaded Andre Michaux, 
a French botanist, to attempt it. Michaux started with a 
party from the Atlantic coast for the west, but before he 
reached the Mississippi he was recalled by his o^vn govern- 
ment. All this goes to show that Jefferson's views on this 
great West were larger than those of his contemporaries. 
Indeed, if anything were needed to convince us of his states- 



18 THE PATHBREAKERS 

manship, a survey of his activities in relation to our western 
domain would furnish proof in plenty. 

Three months before the treaty was signed transferring 
the Louisiana territory, Jefferson had sent a confidential 
letter to Congress asking for an appropriation of $2,500 to 
be used for equipping an expedition to explore the country 
that the United States claimed by right of discovery by 
Captain Gray. Strange as it may seem to us now that we 
know the value of that country, it was with difficulty that 
this amount was obtained. Had Congress but known that 
the property covered by the purchase would some day 
contain a taxable wealth of over $7,000,000,000 the paltry 
sum might not only have been more quickly granted but 
have been considerably increased. 

Jefferson keenly realized that the success of the expedition 
depended upon the men chosen to conduct it. He made no 
mistake here. His former private secretary, Captain 
Meriwether Lewis, was chosen to take chief command, with 
Captain William Clark of Virginia as second. There were 
in the party chosen for the expedition fourteen soldiers from 
the United States army, nine young men from Kentucky, 
all expert riflemen, two French watermen, one interpreter 
and hunter (Drewyer),i Clark's black servant (York), 
who proved to be a rare curiosity to the natives, and sixteen 
men who were to go only part way. Among the twenty men 
who were to take the entire journey there was not a married 
man. The instructions which Lewis and Clark received from 
President Jefferson were minute and complete. They were 
expected not only to observe carefully and keep full records, 
but also to be diplomatists in their dealings with the Indians, 
naturahsts, botanists, geologists, paleontologists, astrono- 
mers, engineers, meteorologists, mineralogists, doctors, 
ethnologists, and, above all, ambassadors, for at all times 

^ The proper spelling is Drouillard, but pronounced as indicated. 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 19 

they officially represented their country. Their journals 
are full of valuable descriptions of the various Indian tribes, 
many of them now extinct. 

The expedition started from Wood River, opposite St. 
Louis, May 14, 1804, with three boats and two horses. The 
largest boat was fifty-five feet long, drawing three feet of 
water, with one large square-shaped sail and twenty-two 
oars; the other two boats were of six and seven oars; the 
horses were to go along the shore to help the boats when 
possible, and to bring to the boats any game that the hunters 
might shoot. The large boat had a '^ swivel" gun or small 
cannon swinging on a pivot which often came into efficient 
service, to make a loud noise if for nothing else. What with 
tortuous stream, unknown channel, numberless snags and 
sandbars, and swift current, progress was so slow that they 
counted themselves fortunate to make fifteen miles a day. 
It took them one hundred and sixty-five days to reach the 
Mandan villages, sixteen hundred miles from St. Louis. Coming 
home, down the river, they made forty-three miles a day, go- 
ing over that part of the return voyage in thirty-seven days. 

The bluffs, hills, creeks, rivers, were all named as they were 
discovered, the name suiting the object or chosen for some 
incident occurring at that time. Thus we have Bear and 
Antelope creeks, where these animals were first killed; 
Independence Creek, named on the Fourth of July; Floyd's 
Bluff, where one of their number was buried. We must 
remember that Lewis and Clark had no charts or maps to 
follow; it was all unnamed, unexplored territory to the 
white man. Their suppHes for a trip of this magnitude were 
necessarily large. They had to take food, clothing, camp 
equipment, fire-arms and ammunition, in addition to innu- 
merable articles for barter with the Indians they expected 
to encounter. Their food was to be the fish and game cap- 
tured from day to day. Their powder was placed in 



20 THE PATHBREAKERS 

numerous small packages, or canisters with lead wrappings. 
These wrappings served a double purpose, keeping the 
powder dry and furnishing just enough lead to make bullets 
for the amount of powder that was in the canister. In this 
way there was no waste of weight, a matter that had received 
the most careful consideration of both captains. Their 
supplies were put in several bales, each bale containing some 
of each article taken. Thus in case of accident or the loss 
of a single bale the entire supply of any one commodity 
would not be destroyed. In addition to these, there were 
fourteen other bales carrying presents for the Indians, 
consisting of bright colored beads, many blue ones, for they 
were the chief's bead and could be bartered for more than 
the other colored ones, tinsel and red cloth, laced coats, 
handkerchiefs of fancy colors, flags, medals, knives, toma- 
hawks, articles of dress, — anything to please the fancy of 
the bartering Indians. Lewis and Clark took three sizes of 
medals, representing as many grades of honor, that were 
to be given to the chiefs of the tribes they might encounter. 
A number of diaries or journals were kept, from which we 
have been able to obtain the most minute details of the 
entire journey, those of Lewis and Clark, of course, being 
the most complete and valuable. 

There was not much variation f^om day to day in their 
experiences, the journey being rather uneventful for several 
months. They frequently met crude boats coming down 
the river loaded to the edge with hides and pelts for sale at 
St. Louis, — the beginnings of the fur trade along the 
Missouri River. 

On August 2, 1804, they held their first formal council 
with the Indians, at which time Lewis told the chiefs of the 
changed government, made them promises of protection, 
and gave advice as to their future conduct. The chiefs were 
rejoiced at the change of government, and sent their regards 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 



21 



to their ''Great Father," the President. The spot where 
this council was held was called ''Council Bluffs," whence the 
name of the present Iowa city.^ Sioux City also is an historic 
spot, for it was here that Sergeant Charles Floyd, the only 
man lost during the expedition, was buried, and his grave 
is now marked by a handsome column. 




From Maximilian's Travels 

A MANDAN VILLAGE, NATIVES IN BOATS MADE FROM BUFFALO 
SKINS STRETCHED ON A FRAME 

Occasionally new kinds of animal life were seen to which 
names were readily applied. When the explorers saw their 
first prairie-dog, they named it "petit chien" (little dog), 
and they called the antelopes "goats." 

On October 26 the explorers reached the Mandan villages, 
not the old ones known to the Verendryes, but the new ones, 
five days' journey farther up the river. Here they spent the 
winter, near the present Bismarck, North Dakota, housing 

1 The original Council Bluffs was on the west bank of the river, 
about twenty miles north of the present city. 



22 THE PATHBREAKERS 

themselves in huts and stockades and passing the winter in 
making boats, mending clothes, jerking meat, and learning 
the habits and customs of the Indians. A new interpreter 
was secured in the person of Toussaint Charbonneau, a 
French Canadian trapper who had worked for the Hudson's 
Bay Company. As he had worked for these fur men of the 
North he was familiar with just those things that Lewis and 
Clark did not know. Charbonneau took with him his young 
Indian wife, Sacajawea, and her papoose, an infant only a 
few weeks old. Since they expected to meet the Snakes, or 
Shoshones, it was thought that Sacajawea would be a useful 
additional interpreter, as she had been captured from that 
tribe when she was a child by the Minnetarees, by whom 
she had been sold into slavery to Charbonneau, who brought 
her up and afterwards married her. 

At five o'clock in the afternoon of April 5, 1805, two 
expeditions left the Mandans, one to return to St. Louis 
with letters to the President, and with hides, stuffed animals, 
bones, articles of Indian dress, bows and arrows; the other, 
with thirty-two members in six canoes, to continue toward 
the unknown Northwest. Up the river they went, encounter- 
ing plenty of deer, buffalo, elk, geese, ducks and prairie- 
chickens for food, and more bears than they found conve- 
nient or comfortable. As a matter of fact the bears became 
very dangerous, often questioning the right of man to in- 
fringe upon their domain. These encounters were important 
enough to cause a stream to be named ''Brown Bear- 
defeated Creek." 

Just north of Fort Benton is Maria's River. Where this 
stream joins the Missouri the explorers were in a quandary 
as to which stream was the branch and which the main river. 
Lewis, after spending four days on the northern branch, or 
the Maria's, finally decided that the southern one was the 
one desired and returned to the junction. At the meeting 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 23 

of these two forks, in order to lighten their loads and also 
to have supplies when they returned from the West, they 
cached many things. ^ 

Still burdened to the limit of their strength, they set out 
on foot to find the Great Falls of the Missouri of which the 
Indians had told them. Lewis discovered these tremendous 
falls on the 15th of June, 1805; and as he stood watching the 
mad rush of waters his thoughts flashed forward to the time 
when a great city would grow up about this storehouse of 
power. Thus felt Champlain upon first beholding Niagara, 
and Father Hennepin when he saw the Falls of St. Anthony. 
This is the greatest recompense of the explorer — to be first 
to find a wonder so full of splendid possibilities for the 
future. To get supplies around the falls it was necessary 
to portage past them, a task occupying two weeks. Many 
of the things were carried on the men's backs, but most of 
them in a cart, the wheels of which were made from a cotton- 
wood tree two feet in diameter. Moccasins were the only 
covering for the men's feet, and so poor protection did they 
afford that the prickly pear, or cactus, easily pierced them 
and left their feet raw and bleeding. Cactus, heat, fatigue, 
and hard work were a fearful strain on the men. But, the 

^This is a most common method adopted by the mountaineers to 
take care of the things. A good, dry spot is selected; the sod is carefully 
removed and placed to one side, so that when it is replaced it will not 
show that it has been disturbed. After the sod is removed a hole is 
dug, and the extra earth that will not be needed to fill up the hole is 
carried to a stream and thrown into the water, so that no trace of it 
may be seen. Then twigs and branches are placed in the bottom of the 
hole, and on these are placed the goods to be cached or hidden; then 
these are covered with hides and skins to keep out moisture or water; 
over all of this is placed enough of the dirt to fill the hole, leaving space 
enough for the sod, which is carefully replaced. Sometimes a fire is 
made on the spot to destroy any sign of the work, or horses are picketed 
over the cache. If the greatest care was exercised, even the skilled 
eye of the Indian could not. detect the hiding-place. 



24 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



portage finished, once more they embarked and soon were at 
the three forks of the Missouri, near the present town of 
Three Forks near Bozeman, Montana. They named these 
parent streams the Jefferson, the Madison, and the Gallatin, 
after the three statesmen who were then guiding the affairs 
of this country. Sacajawea recognized this to be the exact 




Northern Pacific Railway 
THE THREE FORKS OF THE MISSOURI, NAMED BY LEWIS AND 
CLARK, JEFFERSON, MADISON. AND GALLATIN 

spot where she had been captured five years before. When 
the explorers arrived at this point in their journey they 
were two thousand eight hundred forty miles from home. 
Lewis and Clark felt at this stage of their travels that they 
were approaching Sacajawea's country, and at any time might 
encounter the hostile Indians. Every precaution was taken, 
as the entire success of the journey depended upon the 
friendly relations that might be established with these 
Indians. Sacajawea, like a homing pigeon, knew the way, 
guiding here, directing there, pointing to this and that. 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 25 

Occasional signs were observed of Indians; a wild horse or a 
worn moccasin, or smoke signals, all indicating that an ex- 
perience was soon to be theirs. 

It now became absolutely necessary to find mountain 
Indians to furnish the party with horses to cross the moun- 
tains, and with guides as well. Captain Lewis, going ahead 
of the rest with two of his men, discovered a man riding on 
horseback. Although the Captain made the friendly sign 
usual with the Missouri River and Rocky Mountain Indians, 
of holding his blanket in both hands at the two corners, 
throwing it above his head and unfolding it as he brought 
it to the ground as if spreading it out on the ground and 
inviting them to come and sit on it, he failed to attract the 
Indian. Then he ran toward the Indian with a looking-glass 
and trinkets calling, 'Habba bona," 'Habba bona," words 
that Sacajawea had taught him to use, meaning ''white 
man," ''white man," at the same time rolling up his sleeves 
and opening his shirt to show the white skin of his arms and 
chest, for his face and hands were browned and tanned to the 
color of an Indian from the exposure to sun and wind during 
months of outdoor hfe. But the Indian fled. The next day, 
however, Lewis overtook some squaws who conducted him 
to a camp where he met a chief and about sixty warriors, all 
well mounted. The chief, Cameahwait, after much barter- 
ing and bickering, agreed to furnish horses and a guide to 
pilot the expedition over the mountains. 

Early the next morning Clark, Charbonneau, and Saca- 
jawea, with the rest of the party came into the camp. Just 
before their approach Sacajawea commenced to jump and 
dance with joy, sucking her fingers, a sign of joy with her 
tribe. Suddenly she threw her arms around the neck of an 
Indian woman, crying and laughing. This was her lost com- 
panion who had escaped and returned home when Sacajawea 
had been taken captive. When Chief Cameahwait appeared 



26 THE PATHBREAKERS 

she rushed to embrace him, throwing her blanket over their 
heads, weeping and showing the most extravagant joy. 
They were brother and sister. From him she learned that 
her sister had died since the time of the tribal battle of 
which we have spoken, the sole representative of the sister's 
family being a small boy whom Sacajawea immediately 
adopted. History does not record what was done with the 
boy while the expedition journeyed on farther to the West, 
but the strong presumption is that he remained with the 
expedition, went to the coast with his adopted mother, and 
finally went to the Mandan villages. It may be well to 
keep this boy in mind, for we shall learn more of him after 
he grew to manhood. 

At this point there must be some expression of admiration 
for this little Indian woman who during the night after her 
arrival in the camp heard, while in her tepee, her brother 
and his men plotting to drive away to the mountains the 
horses that Lewis had purchased and to leave the expedition 
without any possible means of getting on, as their baggage 
was too heavy to be carried on the men's backs. In the 
morning she told Clark of the proposed dishonesty, thereby 
casting her lot with the white men rather than with her 
own tribe. The white people had been kind to her, and she 
felt an obligation and desire to be loyal to their cause. There 
were many other times up to this point in the journey when 
Sacajawea had rendered valuable service, really service 
that was invaluable. When the expedition was at Brown 
Bear-defeated Creek the boat turned over and the valu- 
able papers, some scientific instruments, medicine, and 
almost every indispensable article for the journey spilled 
into the water. They were rescued by the quick and intrepid 
action of this Indian woman. Without these scientific 
instruments it would have been useless to proceed. To have 
returned to civiUzation to obtain new ones would have post- 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 27 

poned the journey for one year at least, if not indefinitely. 
Lewis and Clark named one of the streams Sacajawea, but 
it is known to-day as ''Crooked Creek." 

It was Sacajawea who found the pass in the mountain 
for Clark on the return journey between the Gallatin and 
Yellov/stone rivers. This is now known as the Bozeman 
Pass and is located between the Bridger and Gallatin 
ranges, east of Bozeman, Montana. Charbonneau was the 
interpreter of the expedition, but Sacajawea often had to 
come to his rescue in this work. One interesting circum- 
stance will illustrate how hard it was to hold a conversa- 
tion. There was a controversy over some horses at a time 
when the possession of horses meant success or failure. 
The contestants were of the Chopunnish tribe. One of 
Lewis and Clark's men took the wording of the trial in 
English and turned the English into French for Charbon- 
neau, who translated this French into Hidatsa for Saca- 
jawea, who gave the Hidatsa in Shoshone to the Shoshone 
Indians, who in turn adapted this Shoshone to Chopunnish 
for the contesting Indian chiefs. 

Service in a medical way was often distressingly needed. 
In this particular Sacajawea added to her usefulness, for 
her native knowledge of medicinal herbs and of the curative 
properties of plants was of extreme worth in time of sickness. 
Again it is difficult to imagine, when starvation seemed to 
be the only outcome, what would have been the result if she 
had not concocted messes made from seeds and plants, and 
had not known of the treasures of artichokes stored away 
in the prairie-dog holes. 

In September of this year, 1806, the party crossed the 
Bitter Root Mountains amidst snow and drifts. Here they 
hailed with delight the first westward-flowing streams. 
Would they empty into the Pacific? That was the question. 
The mountains crossed, they left the horses, after branding 



2S THE PATHBREAKERS 

them,^ in care of a Nez Perce chief, built canoes and again 
embarked, floating with the stream now instead of toihng 
against it. This stream, the Clearwater, emptied into the 
Snake where Lewiston, Idaho, and Clarkston, Washington, 
now stand. Down the swift-flowing Snake they sped to its 
junction with the Columbia, a short way above the present 
Kennewick and Pasco, Washington. Embarked on the broad 
Columbia, their course was rapid and easy, save for the 
excitement of shooting an occasional rapid or making a 
portage. Soon Mt. Hood was seen to the south, Mt. Adams 
to the north. On the east side of the mountains game had 
been very abundant, and the explorers had plenty to eat. 
On the west side they actually suffered for proper food. 
In fact they became so reduced for necessities that they were 
obliged to buy puppies from the Indians, with which they 
made stews that were very much relished. On October 28 
Indians visited them, one of whom had on a round hat and 
a sailor's peajacket; another one had a British musket; one, 
a cutlass; one, a brass teakettle; one, bright colored cloth. 
Then it was that Lewis and Clark knew that they were near 
the end of their journey, as these things must have been ob- 
tained from traders who had reached the shores of the 
Pacific by the water route. The roar of the ocean was a 
thrice welcome sound to their ears, and on November 8 
their eyes were rested and their hearts rejoiced by the sight 
of the goal of their many months of toil and travel, — the 
Western Sea, the goal of the Verendryes' Expeditions. One 
week later Lewis and his party reached the ocean and built 
Fort Clatsop on the south side of the mouth of the Columbia, 
four thousand one hundred thirty-four miles from home. 
Here they estabhshed their winter quarters, and stayed until 

^ This branding iron was found in 1S92 on one of the islands of the 
Columbia, three and a half miles above The Dalles, and is kept as an 
interesting relic in the possession of the Oregon Historical Society. 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 



29 



March 23 the next year. The men were almost naked. 
Clothes had to be made for immediate wear and for the return 
journey. During the winter Captain Clark made a map 
of the entire country 
over which the expe- 
dition had traveled, 
and the men made 
over four hundred 
pairs of moccasins, 
many gallons of salt 
from sea water evap- 
orated, numerous 
packs of jerked veni- 
son, and clothes of 
all kinds from the 
skins of elk, deer, 
beaver, and sea otter. 
Many tribes of In- 
dians were visitors to 
this fort during that 
winter. Comcomly, 
the one-eyed chief, 
was mentioned as fre- 
quenting the fort. 
We hear of this old 
chief again when he 
enters into the life of 
the Astorians who 
wintered in this ex- 
act locality. Lewis and Clark w^re in hopes that any day 
a vessel might arrive from the States by the way of the 
Cape or from China. Before leaving they posted on a tree 
a notice telling of their trip, and with it left a map of the 
route taken. Subsequently, this was faund and given by the 




Captain Clark's drawinq. Doild, Mrml & Co. 
CLATSOP, OR FLATHEAD. INDLA.NS, SHOW- 
ING METHOD OF SHAPING FOREHEAD 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 31 

natives to a Captain Hill, who was in command of a ship 
that arrived at the mouth of the Colum})ia too late to be of 
service to Lewis and Clark. Captain Hill took it to China, 
and brought it thence to the United States. On March 23, 
1806, after presenting Chief Coboway with Fort Clatsop 
and the furniture, the boats were pushed from the shore and 
the home journey began. 

The return journey was easier and more quickly made. 
In one place alone the expedition saved eighty miles by a 
short cut in the southeastern part of what is now the state 
of Washington. When they reached the Clearwater, they 
found that the Nez Perces had been true to their trust, for 
the horses were there and were promptly delivered to their 
owners. It was at this camp that they had to resort to medi- 
cal service to obtain necessary supplies. Eyewater was at a 
premium, cures for rheumatism in great demand, and Lewis 
and Clark rendered to the suffering Indians helpful service, 
thus obtaining their good will. When the expedition left 
the coast they had on hand for exchange only ''six blue 
robes, one of scarlet, five made out of the old United States' 
flag that had floated over many a council, a few old clothes, 
Clark's uniform coat and hat, and a few Httle trinkets that 
might be tied in a handkerchief." Finally the medicine 
chest was empty; brass buttons had departed from the 
soldiers' uniforms; needles, thread, fishhooks, files, and awls 
had been exchanged for bread, and now these *'made-to- 
order" doctors had to resort to every device to obtain from 
the natives the commonest commodities. In the eyes of the 
Indians they were wonderful medicine men. One can fancy 
how mystified the red men were over a watch, with its even 
ticking inside of its covers; the magnet, with its power to 
make a piece of steel move without touching it; phosphorus, 
invisible in the daytime but ghastly at night; the spyglass, 
bringing objects at a distance within the reach of the hand; 



32 THE PATHBREAKERS 

the burning glass, stealing fire from Heaven; and the air gun, 
with its terrifying noise. No wonder the Indians thought 
the white men were more than human beings. The exhibi- 
tion of these mysteries brought to the party the much 
needed food and supphes. 

After they had crossed the Bitter Root Mountains, the 
party divided, Lewis going north by the Missouri River, 
Clark south, by the Yellowstone. Captain Lewis was not 
satisfied with his previous exploration up Maria's River. 
Taking with him Drewyer, the interpreter and hunter, and 
the two Field brothers, he traveled northeast to what is now 
Great Falls, Montana, and then northwest, trying to find 
the source of the Maria's River. The Blackfeet, the most 
treacherous of all Indians, were encountered. In the camp 
one early morning an Indian stole Field's rifle. Field 
regained this after stabbing the thief to the heart. In the 
heat of the struggle the Indians were discovered trying to 
drive away the horses. Without horses, Lewis and his men 
would have been helpless, miles from their party, in a strange 
country, surrounded by hostile Indians. What was to be 
done had to be done quickly and effectively. Lewis at 
once shot and killed a Blackfoot, in exchange receiving 
a shot that fortunately only passed through his hair, 
seized the horses of the braves, and the whole party 
fled for the Missouri. They rode sixty miles without 
stopping, covering over one hundred and twenty miles 
in twenty-four hours. Opening their caches at the 
junction of the Missouri and the Maria's rivers, they 
found much of their buried goods spoiled by water, but 
the iron boat was in good condition. Turning the horses 
loose on the prairies, they went down the Missouri in the 
boat and met Clark, Charbonneau, Sacajawea, and the rest 
of the party at the junction of the Yellowstone and the 
Missouri. 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 



33 



On the way to this junction, Lewis, while hunting one 
day, was mistaken for an antelope by one of his men and 
was shot in the hip. While the injury was not serious, 
when he met the rest of the party he turned over the com- 
mand of the expedition to Clark, who had successfully made 
the journey down the Yellowstone and had arrived before 
Lewis and his division. When the boat arrived Clark was 




YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. ANGEL TERRACES AT THE 
MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS 

John Colter was the first white man to see this formation. When he told of the 
wonders in this location the people of St. Louis thought that he had lived too long 
alone in the wilderness and had become mentally unbalanced. 

much disturbed at not seeing Lewis, and his joy at finding 
him alive, though wounded, testified strongly to the love 
these two fine young men felt for each other. Two days 
after this the entire expedition arrived at the Mandan vil- 
lage, where they found that during their absence their fort 
had been destroyed by fire. 

Charbonneau, Sacajawea, and the baby did not continue 
with the expedition but stayed at the Mandan village. The 
interpreter was paid $500.33 for his services, and Clark 



34 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



expressed his appreciation of the services rendered by the 
Httle Indian woman. One man, John Colter, at his own 
request was permitted to return to the wilderness to trap. 
While trapping he won for himself the distinction of being 
the first white man to witness the thrilling wonders of 
Yellowstone Park. From Mandan, Lewis and Clark took 
Chief Big White with them to St. Louis and ultimately to 




YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. THE GIANT PLAYING 

This geyser action takes place periodically from four to seven days. John Colter, 
of the Lewis and Clark expedition, saw these wonders. 

Washington, D. C. The remainder of the voyage was an 
easy matter, down the stream. They arrived at St. Louis 
September 23, 1806. Great was the rejoicing at this success- 
ful termination of the unparalleled undertaking, for the 
people of that city looked upon the explorers as if they had 
risen from the dead, so long a time had elapsed since infor- 
mation about them had been obtained. Verendrye had 
failed; Lewis and Clark had succeeded. 

Captain Lewis, was appointed Governor of Louisiana 
Territory, which office he held until his death, two years 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 35 

later. Captain Clark was appointed General of the militia 
and Indian Agent of the territory. He administrated affairs 
for the Indians with rare judgment, being fondly called 
''Red Head" by the Indians, while the city of St. Louis was 
known as ''Red Head's Town." 

Very recent investigations have brought to light an 
interesting page in history relative to Sacajawea.^ Prac- 
tically all trace of the Indian woman had been lost for a 
century. Meager mention had been made of her by writers 
of history for indefinite information obtained from traders 
and trappers along the Missouri. But in the endeavor to 
obtain a Shoshone woman to serve as a model for a statue 
representing Sacajawea, in commemoration of the Louisiana 
Purchase, valuable data were unearthed which proved that 
Sacajawea was buried on the Wind River, or Shoshone, 
Reservation in Fremont County, Wyoming. This informa- 
tion showed that she had died at an advanced age, in 1884, 
and had received a Christian burial, through the efforts of 
the Episcopal missionary to whose church she belonged. ^ 
The son Baptiste, she had taken to the coast on her back 
and the nephew, Bazil, whom she had adopted when on her 
way to the Pacific coast, had lived with her for years in 
this fertile valley, where they in turn had been pilots and 
scouts for the white man in his travels and his hunting 
expeditions through that region. It is a custom of the 
Indians that after they once adopt a child they never admit 
the adoption but give to him the position he would have 
occupied had he really been a son. Thus Sacajawea's 
adopted son, who was older than her own boy, was always 

1 " Pilot of the First White Men to Cross America." The Journal of 
American History, Vol. I, No. 3. Grace Raymond Hebard. 

2 In the parish records appears: "April 9, 1884. Bazil's mother, 
Shoshone, one hundred years, residence Shoshone Agency. Cause of 
death, old age. Place of buria Burial Grounds, Shoshone Agency." 



36 THE PATHBREAKERS 

the one that took care of Sacajawea. He wore on his neck 
at his burial a medal that he claimed his father Charbonneau 
had given him, as Charbonneau, himself, had received it 
from Lewis and Clark after the expedition returned to 
Mandan. 

4. ZEBULON PIKE 

August 9, 1805, Captain Lewis was pausing on the Con- 
tinental Divide, near the headwaters of the Jefferson, 
preparing to cross to the Pacific slope. On this exact date 





INDIAN PIPES MADE OF TALC 

another indomitable explorer whose name will always be 
inseparably linked with those of Lewis and Clark started 
from St. Louis by the way of the Mississippi, wishing to 
locate the headwaters of that river, and to ascertain the 
extent and value of the newly acquired territory embraced 
in the Louisiana Purchase. 

President Jefferson was anxious to justify his purchase of 
this wilderness, so he sent Zebulon Pike up the Mississippi 
as he had sent Lewis and Clark up the Missouri. Pike was 
put in command of the expedition by General Wilkinson, with 
orders to explore and make a report upon the Mississippi 
to its source, to make peace with warring Indians, partic- 
ularly the O jib ways and the Sioux, to select desirable sites 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 



37 



for military posts, and to ascertain to what extent the 
British fur traders were still occupying our territory recently 
purchased from Napoleon. 

This country into which Pike was now to travel had been 
explored by Jonathan Carver in 1766-68, when he was 
hunting for the headwaters of the Mississippi. He had 




Northern Pacific Railway 
A BLOCK-HOUSE, FORT RIPLEY, ERECTED IN THE REGION OF 
PIKE'S EXPLORATIONS 

fully described that country to the north and northwest 
of the head of Lake Superior. The French were familiar 
with stories similar to the ones he told about the Indian 
tribes living to the west in the ''Shining Mountains" where 
gold was in such abundance that the most common utensils 
were made from it. These exciting tales spurred Carver 
more than once to try to cross the continent, but always 
without success. 

Without particular incident or accident. Pike with his 
twenty men navigated as far north on the '' Father of Waters " 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 



30 



as Little Falls, Minnesota. Here he left some of his men in 
a stockade which they had built, and pushed up overland to 
the mouth of Turtle River into the regions explored by 
Jonathan Carver in 1766-68. This was as far as Pike 
attempted to advance. He found British fur men in the 
country and protested to them, saying that they were now 
in the country owned by the United States. 




Northern Pacific Railway 

SAINT ANTHONY FALLS, MINNEAPOLIS 
Viewed by Carver and Pike 

Pike returned to St. Louis in April, 1806. From here, 
with twenty soldiers, he started on his second expedition in 
July of this year, going westward into Louisiana Territory. 
New Spain, or Mexico, was jealous of the possessions the 
United States had acquired, and was ready to contest every 
mile that our government might attempt to claim. We 
must remember that the exact boundary hues of the Lou- 
isiana Purchase were not defined. When an Emperor deeds 
a territory to a nation fixing its limits by the wave of his 



40 THE PATHBREAKERS 

hand the boundary Hnes are Hable to be uncertain. This 
second journey of Pike's had for its main object the dis- 
covery of the course of the Arkansas River and the location 
of its headwaters. This and the Rio Grande were felt to 
be determining streams in settling any boundary between 
the United States and Spain. Jefferson felt that we must 
have some definite knowledge of that southwest region in 
case of dispute with Spain and he sent Pike to get this 
knowledge. 

Pike went farther and learned more than any one had 
hoped or even wished. His purpose was to go up the Ar- 
kansas until he came to the mountains and then to go south 
to the Red River, returning home on that stream. After 
traveling many days, weeks in reality. Pike discovered, 
November 15, 1806, a mountain, which looked to the naked 
eye Hke a small blue cloud. A half-hour's travel brought 
him in full view of the peak which now bears his name. 
His party with one accord ''gave three cheers to the Mexican 
Mountains," which shows clearly that they did not know 
where they really were. Confident that the lofty peak 
could be reached in a few hours they pushed on, shivering, 
cold and poorly clad. By this time Pike and his men were 
without shoes, using skins to cover their feet. Their thin 
summer clothing was worn to rags. After marching for 
twenty-five miles they found themselves at evening appar- 
ently no nearer the mountain than they had been at sunrise. 
Pike attempted to climb the peak but was obliged to abandon 
the attempt, declaring that it would be impossible for man 
ever to reach the top. Not only has man reached the top but 
a train daily takes scores of human beings to its summit. Pike's 
Peak will ever be nature's monument to this bold explorer. 

Notwithstanding the heavy storms and the lack of cloth- 
ing Pike went up the Arkansas almost to its source. Then 
he led his band to the southwest searching for the headwaters 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 



41 



of the Red River. The cold became intense. Some of his 
party were so badly frozen that they were crippled for life. 
They could go no farther. Building a cabin to shelter them 
and leaving them nearly all his provisions, Pike, with the 
few men still able to march, hurried southward, seeking 
rehef. Great was their joy when they found themselves on 




ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE (Colorado Springs) 



42 THE PATHBREAKERS 

a stream flowing southward. Now they were sure that they 
had found the Red River. Here they built a stockade, and 
one of the party, Dr. Robinson, went directly to Santa Fe 
for succor. 

Pike was in a serious predicament, for the stream was 
not the Red River at all, but the Rio Grande. He had 
invaded Spanish soil, and here he was captured by Spanish 
dragoons under orders of Governor Allencaster who had 
heard that armed forces, carrying the American flag, were 
on his territory. The arrest or capture was really in the 
form of a polite invitation to visit the Governor at Santa Fe. 
On the 6th of February, 1807, after a breakfast on deer, 
meal, goose, and biscuit, which an Indian spy had brought 
to Pike and his men, the commanding officer of the dragoons 
said: ''Sir, the Governor of New Mexico, being informed 
that you had missed your route, ordered me to offer you, 
in his name, horses, mules, money, or whatever you might 
stand in need of to conduct you to the head of Red River, 
as from Santa Fe to where it is sometimes navigable is eight 
days' journey, and we have guides and the routes of the 
traders to guide us." 

'^What," said Pike, interrupting him, ''is not this the 
Red River?" 

"No, sir; the Rio del Norte." 

At this Pike immediately ordered the United States flag 
to be taken down and rolled up, feeling that he had com- 
mitted himself in entering Spanish territory, and that they 
had justifiable reasons for his arrest. Upon his consent to 
accompany the Spanish soldiers to Santa Fe, he and his 
men were supplied with clothing and food. Pike was treated 
with every consideration, notwithstanding that he had 
invaded Spanish soil. When he arrived at Santa Fe he was 
ordered to explain how he came to be with an armed force 
within the territory of the Spanish. Evidently he could 



THE EARLY EXPLORERS 



43 



give no excuse that seemed good to his Spanish captors, for 
they kept him and his men prisoners in Santa Fe for several 
months and then marched them to Mexico under strict 
guard. After conducting the prisoners through various 
parts of New Mexico and Chihuahua, always keeping them 




SANTA FE TO-DAY 

under strict surveillance, but treating them with considera- 
tion, the Spaniards brought them through Texas and turned 
them loose at Natchitoches on the Red River. Pike had not 
succeeded in preserving all of his notes,^ but he had used 
his eyes and his ears well, had learned much about that 
strange Spanish land, its riches, its love of finery, its depend- 
ence upon old Spain for supphes, and to his report we can 

^Many of his records were stolen by the Spanish authorities, but 
Pike, suspicious that his precious notes might be confiscated, concealed 
his smaller note-books in the barrels of the guns of his men. 



44 THE PATHBREAKERS 

trace directly the beginning of the Santa Fe trade that began 
soon after and proved so rich a field for American enterprise. 

REFERENCES 

Prince. Historical Sketches of New Mexico. 

Johnson. Pioneer Spaniards in North America. 

Winship. The Journey of Coronado. 

Thwaites. Rocky Mountain Explorations. 

Dellenbaugh. Breaking the Wilderness. 

Bancroft. History of Mexico, Vol. II. 

Parkman. A Half Century of Conflict. 

Laut. Pathfinders of the West. 

McMurray. Pioneers of the Rocky Mountains and West. 

Hebard. History and Government of Wyoming. 

Journals of Lewis and Clark. 

Wheeler. The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 

Hosmer. The Expedition of Lewis and Clark. 

Hermann. The Louisiana Purchase. 

Schafer. History of the Pacific Northwest. 

Dye. The Conquest. 

Coues. The Expedition of Zcbulon Pike. 

Hough. The Way to the West. 

Inman. The Old Santa Fe Trail. 

Bennett. A Volunteer with Pike. 

Grinnell. Trails of the Pathfinder. 



CHAPTER II 

THE FUR TRADERS 

1. The Missouri River Men 4. The American Fur Com- 

2. Astoria pany 

3. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company 

1. THE MISSOURI RIVER MEN 

When Lewis and Clark came down the Missouri in the 
fall of 1806, they met many venturous traders in furs wend- 
ing their way to the great country in which the explorers had 
passed the last two and a half years. Reports of their 
successful journey up the Missouri as far as Fort Mandan 
had reached St. Louis long before Lewis and Clark had 
returned. Their reports, telling of many fine game regions 
and good beaver streams in the far western mountains, gave 
a tremendous impetus to the trapping industry. Yet one 
must remember that fur traders had penetrated the country 
of the northwest, at least as far as the Mandan Villages, how 
far is not known, before Lewis and Clark started on their 
expedition. Witness the boats loaded to the brim with 
furs coming down while the explorers in 1804 were going up 
the Missouri. 

St. Louis was the general starting-point for the expeditions 
that went up the Missouri for the Northwest. Here the 
outfits were equipped for the long voyage, and thither they 
returned with their boats filled with precious hides from the 
north. These furs and peltries were obtained from the 
beaver, fox, otter and mink, and the heavier skins from the 
buffalo. The skins of the buffalo were used for robes and 

45 



46 THE PATHBREAKERS 

winter coats. Beaver skins were in great demand for mak- 
ing beaver hats, so much worn by men of fashion. 

In the spring of 1807, Manuel Lisa, who had organized 
the Missouri Fur Company, with himself as its head and 
Captain Clark as its agent in St. Louis, went north and built 
Fort Manuel at the mouth of the Big Horn River. Here 
he planted himself, sent his hired trappers and hunters out 
to gather furs, and invited the Indians in to trade their furs 
for beads, flashy cloth, knives, hatchets, tobacco, and, it 
must be admitted, guns, powder, lead, and poor whiskey. 
The guns were not very good ones and did no one much harm, 
but the whiskey was especially bad and worked havoc. 
This bringing of whiskey to the Indians was the greatest 
sin of the trapper. The Government later worked faith- 
fully to stop the practice, but it was hard to kill. Early in 
the spring of 1810 the Missouri Fur Company took a long 
stride into the wilderness by sending Andrew Henry with a 
strong party to the Three Forks of the Missouri. Three 
hundred packs of beaver skins were taken at the Three Forks 
during the first year. But the Blackfeet swooped down on 
the fur men, killing five of the trappers and taking their 
horses, traps, guns, ammunition, and all of their furs. Other 
attacks followed, in one of which George Drewyer, the 
hunter for Lewis and Clark, was killed after a desperate 
defense. These reverses so discouraged the company that 
Henry abandoned his post, crossed the Continental Divide 
to the south, and established himself on the north fork of the 
Snake River which is known to this day as Henry's Fork. 
This tireless trapper then built a temporary post near what 
is now the little town of Egin, Idaho. Game proved to be 
very scarce in this new locality, and in the spring of 1811 
Henry returned down the river, meeting Lisa en route. It 
was on this trip up the river to relieve Henry that Lisa 
had the exciting race with Wilson Price Hunt, one of the 




THE FUR TRADERS 47 

Astoria men on his way to the Pacific. Lisa gave invaluable 
aid during the war of 1812. He was made a sub-agent to 
all of the Missouri tribes above Kansas, as he was the man 
who best understood the Indians. It was through his 
efforts that all of these tribes along the upper Missouri allied 
themselves with the United States, rather than with the 
British fur men, and re- 
mained at peace when they 
might have desolated the 
border. Lisa died in 1820, 
after having traveled up and 
down the Missouri at least 
a dozen times, or a distance 
of twenty-six thousand miles i^^ian drinking-cup made 

./XT 1 1 ^F HORN 

by water. He was beyond 

comparison the ablest of the traders so far as the actual 
conduct of an enterprise was concerned, and wherever he 
alone had control, and when not hampered by the counsels 
of others, he generally succeeded."^ One might say that 
Manuel Lisa was the Cortez of the Rocky Mountain trade. 



2. ASTORIA 

One of the first men to grasp the tremendous advantages 
offered for a transcontinental route, in the region along the 
Missouri River and down the Columbia, was John Jacob 
Astor, the founder of the fur post, Astoria, at the mouth of 
the Columbia River. The reports of Lewis and Clark 
showed that this new country abounded in furs, which might 
be carried to the mouth of the Columbia and from there be 
sent to China, where there was a great market for them. 
''With China a market for furs from the Pacific coast, with 
Russian establishments on the northwest coast, which his 

^ Chittenden. History of the American Fur Trade. 



48 THE PATHBREAKERS 

ships might supply as an incident to their main business, 
with markets at home for the products of the Orient, with 
lines of trading-posts all along the Columbia from the sea 
to its source, connected thence with the Missouri and extend- 
ing down that stream to St. Louis and from that point by 
the way of the Great Lakes to New York itself, Mr. Astor 
saw that his business would indeed be world-wide in scope 
and international in importance."^ 

John Jacob Astor was born in the German village of 
Waldorf, near Heidelberg, on the banks of the Rhine. When 
he was a youth he had a dream of great wealth that he was to 
acquire. Leaving home he went to London, thence to New 
York, where he had an elder brother. When he came to 
New York in 1784 he brought with him certain merchandise 
which he exchanged for peltries. These he sold in London 
at a great profit, convincing himself that there was much 
money to be made in the fur business. The United States 
at that time did not have any organized fur business, so the 
young Astor made annual trips to Montreal to purchase 
furs. As no direct trade between the United States and 
Canada was at that time allowed, these furs had to be shipped 
to London. When these restrictions of trade were removed 
he sent the furs directly to New York, and from there shipped 
them all over Europe and even to China, bringing in exchange 
dress goods, jewelry, tea, coffee, and spices to the United 
States. 

Astor established the Southwest Fur Company, exploiting 
the region of the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi; 
but soon his plans became world-wide in scope. He planned 
to establish posts all along the Missouri and the Columbia 
to the Pacific. Then, on all of the streams tributary to 
these rivers, were to be built smaller posts, trading directly 
with the Indians for furs. The furs along the northwest coast 
^ Chittenden. 



THE FUR TRADERS 49 

were to be gathered by his ships, -and the Russian Fur Com- 
pany post at Sitka would get its supphes from him. SuppHes 
for all these posts were to be sent to the western coast by 
ships from the Atlantic. 

That he might have experienced lieutenants in this great 
undertaking, Astor chose for his partners, with one exception, 
factors of the Northwest Fur Company, a Canadian con- 
cern, then in fierce rivalry with the Hudson's Bay Company. 
Even his clerks came from the ranks of the enemy. None 
of these men put any of their own capital into the enterprise. 
Astor furnished all the money. Wilson Price Hunt of New 
Jersey was the sole American partner. The names of the 
others read like the roster of the Scottish Clans: Alexander 
McKay, Duncan McDougal, Donald McKenzie, Robert 
McLellan, Robert Stuart. This selection of partners was 
Astor's serious blunder, not because they were foreigners, 
but because they had a foreign interest. They had really 
no interest, pecuniary or patriotic, to lead them to fight for 
the success of the Pacific Fur Company. 

Two expeditions departed from our eastern shores for 
the mouth of the Columbia River, one by land and one by 
sea, one to go around Cape Horn, the other over the route of 
Lewis and Clark. Russia had given Astor permission to 
trade along her coast in North America; the United States 
had sanctioned the organization of this fur company; so 
Astor virtually had the backing of two nations in his enter- 
prise. The sea-going party was placed under the command of 
Lieutenant Jonathan Thorn of the United States Navy, 
who at that time was on a leave of absence. Thorn was a 
man of exceptional courage, but lacked the tact necessary to 
handle such a motley crowd as embarked with him. There 
were noisy French boatmen, scribbling clerks, and, hardest 
of all for the doughty Captain to manage, the Scottish part- 
ners, who felt that they had the right to give him orders 



50 THE PATHBREAKERS 

After much storm both outside the ship and within it, they 
arrived at the mouth of the Columbia, March 22, 1811, where 
in seeking for a practicable passage across the bar nine of 
the men were lost with a small boat. East of Cape Disap- 
pointment the " Tonquin " came to anchor. Two weeks after, 
at Point George a post was established named ''Astoria."^ 




ASTORIA IN 1813 

After the cargo was removed the Tonquin coasted to 
the north in search of furs. Her fate was most spectacu- 
lar. Not one of the crew returned to Astoria, and what 
follows was gleaned from the story of the Indian interpreter, 
Lamazee, who alone of all that left Astoria escaped the 
catastrophe. It seems that while trading with the Indians 
near Nootka Sound, Thorn suddenly lost patience with the 
haggling and bantering of a chief, snatched an otter-skin from 
his hands, rubbed it in his face, and '^ dismissed him over the 
side of the ship with no very complimentary application to 

^The fort of Lewis and Clark was still standing when Astoria waa 
built, and the names of several of the party were cut upon the logs. 



THE FUR TRADERS 51 

accelerate his exit. He then kicked the peltries to right and 
left about the deck and broke up the market in the most 
tempestuous manner." ^ The Indians concealed their rage 
and in a day or two were back on the ship in overwhelming 
numbers. They haggled not at all, but took whatever was 
offered them, being especially eager, however, to trade for 
knives and hatchets. Having lulled all suspicion to rest, 
they suddenly, at a signal given, sprang upon the crew, cut 
down Thorn, and killed all but four men who happened to be 
in the rigging, and Mr. Lewis, the ship's clerk, who got to 
the cabin and opened fire upon them. With the help of the 
four men from the rigging he drove them from the ship. 
The four sailors tried to escape that night by boat, but were 
captured, tortured, and killed. Lewis, badly wounded and 
despairing of succor, resolved to die like Samson in the midst 
of his enemies. By friendly signs he invited the Indians 
to come on board, and when they had thronged the deck he 
lighted the powder magazine, blowing himself, his ship, and 
his foes to instant death. Lamazee, who had gone ashore 
with the Indians after the attack, saw all this from the shore, 
and he seems never to have forgotten the horror of it. 

Here was a discouraging situation for the handful of men 
at Astoria, in a hostile country surrounded by revengeful 
savages. But McDougal rose to the occasion, and ingenious- 
ly contrived a scheme for keeping the Indians quiet. Some 
years before this smallpox had appeared in this region and 
almost exterminated entire tribes, so that the Indians had 
the utmost dread of the disease. McDougal called the 
chiefs together and showed them a small bottle, saying, ''In 
this bottle I hold smallpox, safely corked up. I have but 
to draw the cork and let loose the pestilence to sweep 
man, woman, and child from the face of the earth." The 
chiefs made haste to assure McDougal that they wanted to be 
^ Irving, Astoria. 



52 THE PATHBREAKERS 

friendly and neighborly, and pledged their loyalty to the 
company, and particularly to the "Great Smallpox Chief!" 

While the Astorians were thus trying to establish a foothold 
on the Pacific coast, the overland party, led by Hunt, was 
toiling westward under still greater difficulties. With them 
was Donald McKenzie, one of the partners who had had ten 
years' experience in the employ of the Northwest Company. 
The party left St. Louis October 21, 1810, camping for the 
winter at a spot a little below the site of St. Joseph, Missouri. 
As early as possible in the spring of 1811 they resumed the 
journey up the Missouri, hurrying to get out of the way of 
Manuel Lisa, who had been a thorn in their side while they 
were near St. Louis. Lisa chd not like to see interlopers 
endeavoring to share with him the profits of the western 
fur trade. Furthermore, Pierre Dorion, the gifted half- 
breed interpreter whom Hunt had hired, owed him a whiskey 
debt, and Lisa felt that until it was paid he should have the 
first call on Dorion's services. Up the river went Hunt as 
fast as oar, pole, and cordelle could drag his heavy boats. 
They passed La Charette, the last squalid village of the 
whites, and just beyond it found Daniel Boone, still squatting 
on the farthest frontier. John Colter, too, the man of Lewis 
and Clark's party who had turned back to the wilderness 
from the Mandan Villages, was settled near here, and ac- 
companied them for a day, doubtless wishing heartily that 
he might stay with them to the end; but he had recently 
taken a wife and could no longer roam at will. With Hunt's 
party were Nuttall and Bradbury, two scientists going to the 
unknown land to increase the sum of scientific knowledge. 
In Bradbury's Journal will you find an interesting account 
of this meeting with these two heroes, of Colter's thrilling 
escape from the Blackfeet, and of Boone's skill with the rifle 
and trap, though he was then an old man of eighty-four years. 

Lisa, on his way to relieve Henry, ivas coming swiftly up 



THE FUR TRADERS 



53 



the river, and Hunt, fearing his enmity and eager to pass 
through the Sioux and Arikara tribes before Lisa could reach 
them and set them against him, strained every nerve to keep 
the lead. But by 
the second of June 
Lisa had overtaken 
him, just as they 
arrived in the hos- 
tile Sioux territory. 
Together the two 
parties traveled as 
far as the Arikara 
Villages, which 
were below the 
Mandan's and a 
few miles above the 
junction of the 
Grand and Mis- 
souri rivers. Hunt 
had expected to go 
to the source of the 
Missouri, and then 
down the Colum- 
bia, following the 
trail of Lewis and 
Clark; but the ac- 
counts of hostility 
of the Blackfeei 
decided him to abandon the boats at this point and endeavor 
to reach the coast by an overland route. In order to avoid 
the dreaded Blackfeet, Hunt and his men turned to the south- 
west, went through the Dakotas, across the southeast corner 
of Montana into Wyoming near the northeastern boundary, 
and south into the Wind River country, where they encount- 




From Mii.rifnilian's Tniuls 
AN ARIIvARA INDIAN, PASHTUWA CHTA 



54 THE PATHBREAKERS 

ered the Shoshone and Flathead Indians. During the jour- 
ney the guide and interpreter deserted the party, exposing 
the members to unnecessary hardships and to the cunning of 
the Crow Indians. Before leaving what is now Wyoming 
they saw the Tetons and named them ''Pilot Knobs.'' After 
leaving Pierre's Hole they found the journey easy enough 




THE TETONS AND JACKSON LAKE (Wyoming) 

down the Snake River to Henry's post. At this post Hunt 
made the serious mistake of his trip by abandoning his 
horses and taking to the river. Leaving some of his men to 
trap and hunt, entrusting his horses to the care of two 
Snake Indians, Hunt embarked with the remainder of his 
men in fifteen canoes. The error of this change was soon 
evident, for the rapid Snake proved unnavigable. Abandon- 
ing their canoes and hiding their goods in many caches, the 
forty-nine men on foot pushed toward the west. The party 
divided into three divisions, two following the general direc- 
tion of the Snake River, while Hunt's path went north to the 
present site of Boise City, then down the Columbia to As- 
toria, February 15, 1812. Thus we have the first white man 
and his party over the Oregon Trail. 



THE FUR TRADERS 55 

Great was the rejoicing at Astoria over the reunion of the 
sea and land forces. In accordance with arrangements 
made by Astor, a dispatch was sent to him in New York, 
telHng of the safe arrival of both parties. Robert Stuart was 
selected to attempt the long journey overland to the east 
with an escort of only five men. The return trip to the 
place where Hunt had cached his suppHes was much the 




THE SNAKE RIVER ISSUING FROM JACKSON LAKE 

same as that of the outgoing Astorians. At the place where 
the goods were cached they met the Snake Indian who had 
acted as guide from the mouth of Hoback River to Henry's 
Fort the year before. This Indian also had charge of the 
abandoned horses. He reported that the horses had been 
stolen, the caches broken open, the supplies all taken, and 
the trapping parties left destitute. At Fort Henry Stuart 
found four of the party who told of their wanderings, and a 
''doleful narrative it was." From here Stuart and his men 
pushed on toward the east, going on what afterwards became 
the Oregon Trail. The one mistake that Stuart then made 
was to abandon the course he was taking and endeavor to 




SHOSHONE FALLS IN SNAKE RIVER, IDAHO, AND TWIN FALLS-JEROME 

STAGE ROAD 



THE FUR TRADERS 



57 



find Henry's route to the north. This occurred at a point 
east of Bear Lake on the boundary Hne between Utah and 
Wyoming. After going north as far as Pierre's Hole the 
party journeyed east to Wind River (Wyoming), getting on 
the Oregon Trail route again, which then was an Indian path. 





B^^Hp*2^ "^-^^^M 


> 






'^^^^^^ 


iiriP 





DEVIL'S GATE BETWEEN INDEPENDENCE ROCK AND SOUTH PASS 

Had they followed this path they would have found that 
great gateway between the east and west, South Pass, through 
which in the years to come many thousand weary and 
hopeful travelers were to pass on their way to Oregon, Cali- 
fornia, and Utah. Missing this, Stuart's party had a heart- 
breaking experience. Down to the south and west, Stuart 
went into the barren deserts of the Sweetwater Mountains, 
then to the Sweetwater River where the party found abun- 
dance of buffalo. From here they went by way of the historic 



58 THE PATHBREAKERS 

Devil's Gate and Independence Rock to North Platte River. 
It was now the last of October and winter was rapidly ap- 
proaching. The remainder of the journey could not possibly 
be made before the coming of the heavy snows. In view 
of this fact, Stuart decided to make this point on the Platte 
his winter quarters. Here his men built a warm cabin in a 
wooded bottomland opposite the mouth of Poison Spider 
Creek. ''This was the first building within the hmits of the 
present state of Wyoming."^ 

Game was found in great abundance, and the explorers 
fairly Hned their httle cabin with the ''jerked" meat of the 
buffalo. Peace was not long to be their lot, however, for 
the Arapahoe Indians discovered their little hermitage and 
ate them out of "house and home." The Httle nook of 
security being no longer safe, the party pushed down the 
Platte to where is now Wellsville (Nebraska), several miles 
down the stream from what was to be Fort Laramie. Here 
they built another winter hut, occupying themselves with 
making canoes until early in March, 1813, when they started 
on the last stage of their long journey. While on their way 
down the river they received the first news of the war be- 
tween the United States and England. "In perfect health 
and fine spirits" they arrived in St. Louis April 30, 1813. 

As two years had passed without news since Hunt's 
party had left St. Louis, the tidings of its safe arrival at 
Astoria were received with great delight. Hunt made the dis- 
tance between St. Louis and the coast in three hundred forty 
days, Stuart in three hundred six days. Chittenden says: 
"The two Astorian expeditions are entitled to the credit of 
having practically opened up the Oregon Trail from the Mis- 
souri River at the mouth of the Kansas to the mouth of the Col- 
umbia River." It is for this reason it has been thought wise 
to give so much space to the travels of the Astorian parties. 
^ Chittenden. 



THE FUR TRADERS 



59 



Upon the outbreak of the war of 1812 the Northwest 
Company at once took steps to drive the Americans from 
Astoria. While Hunt was away on a side exploration, 
leaving McDougal in charge, representatives of the Northwest 
Company came to Astoria, and received the heartiest welcome 
from the Scotchmen whose interests had never been entirely 
alienated from the British Company. When Hunt returned 
he found Astoria in the hands of the rival company, and the 




FORT VANCOUVER AS IT APPEARED IN 1845 



fort renamed Fort George, with the British flag flying where 
the Stars and Stripes had been. McDougal sold $100,000 
worth of furs to the Northwest Company for $40,000, and 
obtained a good position with the rival company. Final 
settlement was made and the Astoria dream was at an end. 
By the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war with 
England, it was agreed that all places captured during the 
conflict should be returned. Thus Astoria was restored to 
the United States, though England claimed the mouth of the 
Columbia; and the Hudson's Bay Company, which had ab- 
sorbed the Northwest Company, built Fort Vancouver oppo- 
site the mouth of the Willamette, one hundred miles up the Co- 
lumbia, and for many years held themastery of the Northwest. 



60 THE PATHBREAKERS 

It was not until 1818 that any definite conclusion was 
reached, and then it was agreed that all lands north of the 
42d parallel east to the Rocky Mountains should be neutral 
ground and open to both the United States and England. 
The Spaniards for years had claimed all of the land along 
the Pacific to the 55th parallel. Russia at the same 
time demanded all of the territory on the coast down to the 
fifty-first degree; the United States claimed to the Rio 
Grande in virtue of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1819 a 
treaty was made with Spain by which Florida was bought 
for $19,000,000, and Spain ceded to the United States all her 
claims to the Pacific coast lying between the 42d parallel 
and 54° 40', while we gave up all claim to Texas. With this 
treaty the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase and the 
Spanish possessions were definitely settled and located, and 
all Spanish claims north of 42° became ours. The United 
States now had a right to claim the Oregon domain through 
six channels: by the discovery of 1792, when Gray of Boston 
found the mouth of the Columbia; by the purchase from 
France in 1803; by exploration through Lewis and Clark in 
1805-6; by the establishment of Astoria in 1811; by the 
journey of Wilson Hunt in 1812; and by treaty with Spain 
in 1819. 

3. THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR COMPANY 

In 1821 the Northwest Fur Company was absorbed by 
the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, and the huge concern 
proceeded to monopoUze the fur business on the west side 
of the Rocky Mountains. The headquarters were at Fort 
Vancouver on the northern bank of the Columbia opposite 
the mouth of the Willamette. At this time General William 
Ashley of St. Louis, a man of much experience and large 
business capacity, thought he saw an opportunity to enter 
into the fur trade on an extended scale. Early in the 



THE FUR TRADERS 61 

spring of 1822 he organized a company under the name of 
the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. With Ashley were 
associated Andrew Henry, who had trapped for Lisa, Jede- 
diah S. Smith, WiUiam Sublette, Milton Sublette, David 
E. Jackson, Robert Campbell, James Bridger, Etienne 
Provost, and many others, all of whom wrote their names 
large in .the early history of the West. Many streams, 
lakes, mountain peaks, passes, and forts are named after 
these brave explorers. 

Ashley was a Virginian who had lived at St. Louis since 
1802. Having had twenty years of experience on the fron- 
tier, he was well qualified to head an enterprise of the magni- 
tude of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The first 
expedition left St. Louis April 15, 1822, bound for the 
Three Forks of the Missouri, the region that Ashley thought 
had "si wealth not surpassed by the mines of Peru." After 
being out but a short distance one of the keelboats struck a 
snag, going to the bottom of the river and taking with it 
$10,000 worth of property belonging to the Company. Not- 
withstanding this heavy loss, the party went on. Without 
further accident they all arrived at the Mandan Villages, 
just abov^e which they lost all their horses through a raid of 
the Assinniboine Indians. This made it impossible to push 
on to Three Forks before the coming of winter, so they built 
Ashley-Henry Fort, at the junction of the Yellowstone and 
Missouri rivers. 

Here they trapped all winter, and in the spring started 
for the country of the Blackfeet. These Indians had not 
lost any of their fierceness and drove the men back to the 
mouth of the Yellowstone. Ashley had returned to St. 
Louis, and at this time had reached the Arikara villages on 
his way up the river with reinforcements. The Arikaras 
were a most unreliable tribe, one day pretending friendship, 
the next at war. This time it was war, and after a sharp 



62 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



fight they killed one of Ashley's men, wounded four others, 
and obliged the party to retreat down the river, where Ashley 
called for volunteers to carry a message to Henry. Much to 
the surprise of every one, Jedediah Smith, the boy of the 
party, offered his services. With marvelous escapes this 
stripling reached Henry, who with twenty men promptly 
came to the rescue of Ashley. From this point the entire 







'J^0^ 



i 



s 




IN THE GROS VENTRE ^lOUNTAINS NEAR JACKSON'S LAKE 

party went down the river to the mouth of White River, 
where they established Fort Lookout, and waited for the 
United States troops to escort them beyond the fighting 
tribe. After receiving assistance from the soldiers, Henry 
with eighty men, among whom were Smith, Bridger, Provost, 
Jackson, and Sublette, started for the Yellowstone. At the 
mouth of the Big Horn River he estabhshed another Ashley- 
Henry Post not far from the site of Fort Manuel. From 
here he sent out Etienne Provost with a small party to trap 
to the southwest. It was on this journey, in 1823, that 
Provost discovered South Pass, an open highway in the 
central part of Wyoming, the easy road across the Rockies. 



THE FUR TRADERS 63 

In Utah we find a pretty river, a picturesque canon, and a 
thriving city, all named after this old partisan of Ashley's, 
though the name has been shortened to Provo. It was 
Provost and his party that found the good trapping-grounds 
in the region of the Great Salt Lake. It was Jim Bridger 
who found the Great Lake in the winter of 1824. It was 
Jedediah Smith, in 1827, who first crossed the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains separating California from the East. Ashley 
established a post on Utah Lake near the site of the present 
city of Provo in 1825, and the next year took out a small 
cannon to be mounted there, the first wheeled vehicle to 
cross South Pass. The wheels of this engine of war made the 
first dim traces of the Oregon Trail, that wonderful road 
that was to lead to the peaceful conquest of the vast region 
known as the Oregon Country. Great store of beaver were 
found on Bear River, Green River, Provo River, Weber 
River, and Utah Lake, and Ashley became a rich man, 
potent in the politics of Missouri. His bands, led by such 
partisans as Provost, Bridger, Smith, Jackson, the two 
Sublettes and Fitzpatrick, penetrated into every nook of 
this unknown land, trapped on every stream and lake, 
found every fertile valley and mountain pass. Ashley him- 
self was the first white man to navigate Green River, which 
at that time was supposed to empty into the Gulf of Mexico, 
but which came to be known as a branch of the Colorado 
emptying into the Gulf of California. Down Green River 
Ashley went, as far as the mouth of the stream now bearing 
his name. Forty years after this a United States Geological 
Survey on its entrance into the Red Cafion found inscribed 
on a high rock, '^ Ashley 1825." 

The most picturesque event in the lives of the fur men was 
the ''rendezvous" held annually in some favored spot, such 
as Pierre's Hole (now Teton Basin, Idaho), Ogden's Hole, 
where Ogden, Utah, now stands, or the valley of the Green 



64 THE PATHBREAKERS 

River. Every trapper knew where the rendezvous would 
be held, and about the first of July each year they began to 
gather. Here would come gaily attired gentlemen from the 
mountains of the south, with a dash of the Mexican about 
them, their bridles heavy with silver, their hat brims rakishly 
pinned up with gold nuggets, and with Kit Carson or Dick 
Wooton in the lead. In strong contrast would appear Jim 
Bridger and his band, careless of personal appearance, de- 
spising foppery, burnt and seamed by the sun and wind of 
the western deserts, powdered with fine white alkahdust, 
fully conscious that clothes mean nothing, and that man to 
man they could measure up with the best of the mountain 
men. At this gathering you would find excitable French- 
men looking for guidance to Provost, the two Sublettes, and 
Fontenelle; the thoroughbred American, Kentuckian in 
type, with his long, heavy rifle, his six feet of bone and muscle, 
and his keen, determined, alert vigilance; the canny Scot, 
typified by Robert Campbell, who won both health and 
fortune in the mountains; the jolly Irishman, best represented 
by Fitzpatriok, the man with the broken hand who knew 
more about the mountains than any other man except 
possibly Bridger; and mixed in the motley crowd an alloy of 
Indians — Snakes, Bannocks, Flatheads, Crows, Utes — come 
to trade furs for powder, lead, guns, knives, hatchets, fancy 
cloth, and, most coveted of all, whiskey, that made the 
meanest redskin feel like the greatest chief. 

Fur trading was the prime purpose of these gatherings. 
Great loads of goods were brought from St. Louis, at first 
on pack animals, but after Captain Bonneville's time, by 
wagons; and these were traded to the Indians and the free 
trappers for furs. The organized bands working for the 
Rocky Mountain Fur Company received their outfits for 
the coming year, and their wages for the past year, turned in 
their catch, and departed again for the beaver haunts. In 



THE FUR TRADERS 



65 



a few days all were scattered and nothing remained to mark 

the location of the rendezvous save the charred remains of 

campfires, well gnawed bones, some empty cans, many 

empty bottles, and generally a few fresh graves to testify 

to the maddening potency of the fluid those innocent bottles 

had held. In 1826 Ashley sold his interest in the Rocky 

Mountain Fur Company 

to Jedediah Smith, David 

Jackson, and William 

Sublette. The business 

was in their hands 

when Milton Sublette, a 

brother of William, in 

1830 took wagons over 

the eastern end of what 

became the Oregon Trail. 

But he did not cross 

South Pass with them; 

that distinction belongs 

to Captain Bonneville. captain bonneville 

Bonneville was a Frenchman in the United States army, 
who, having heard of Ashley's amazing success in the fur 
trade, decided to turn trader and trapper himself, obtained 
a leave of absence from the army, and cast his fortune in the 
West from 1832 to 1835. 

With one hundred ten men and two wagons Bonneville 
started from Independence May 1, 1832. The journey to 
the northwest was under military discipline, with Captain 
Bonneville as the commander-in-chief. The route was the 
usual one taken at this time, northwest across the plains, up 
the Platte and Sweetwater, past Independence Rock, Devil's 
Gate, and through South Pass to Green River. On the west 
bank of this stream, five miles above the mouth of Horse 
Creek, Bonneville and Fontenelle built Fort Bonneville, or 




66 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



*'Fort Nonsense," as it was called by the trappers. The 
Indians compelled Bonneville to abandon this fort and move 
over to the headwaters of the Salmon River for the winter. 

Indeed, he was al- 
most constantly on 
the move during 
the three years and 
more that he spent 
in the mountains, 
and so much of this 
region did he cover 
personally or by 
means of side par- 
ties, and so excel- 
lent were the maps 
and reports that he 
made upon return- 
ing to the army 
that he can justly 
be reckoned the 
chief contributor 
to our store of 
early geographic 
knowledge about 
the Far West. Add 
to this the fact that 
his exploits fur- 
nished Irving with 
material for one of the most charming books in our language 
and you will see that our debt to the worthy captain is large. 
He journeyed all over southern Idaho, western Wyoming, 
northern Utah, and even to Fort Vancouver on the Columbia. 
He sent out many expeditions, the most notable of which, 
under I. P.Walker, crossed the desert to California, discovered 




YOSEMITE FALLS, DISCOVERED BY WALKER 
IN 1833 



THE FUR TRADERS ' 67 

Yosemite Valley, and explored much of that desolate region 
lying between Great Salt Lake and the Sierra Nevadas. This 
expedition of Walker's and the two earlier ones of Jedediah 
Smith furnished the first trustworthy information about 
California and how to get there. Bonneville's claim to fame 
rests upon his consummate address in dealing with his tur- 
bulent retainers and his Indian neighbors, and upon his 
large contributions to geographic knowledge. In the eyes of 
History his failure as a fur trader is but a trivial matter. 

After Jedediah Smith, with his partners, had purchased 
Ashley's fur business in 1826, he started out on a long and 
perilous journey toward the Pacific, his wanderings covering 
a period of three years, into a territory then ''wholly un- 
known to the American traders."^ Starting from Great 
Salt Lake, Smith and his fourteen men explored around 
Utah Lake, into the Sevier valley, down the Colorado, west 
into Southern California, reaching San Diego late in the fall. 
Viewed with suspicion by the Spanish, Smith left the coun- 
try, trapping and exploring in the valleys of the San Joaquin 
and the Sacramento, and in the spring of 1827 crossed the 
Sierras and returned to the summer rendezvous near Salt 
Lake. The next year he again penetrated to California, 
through trials innumerable. Driven out by the Spanish, he 
went north into Oregon, but at the Umpqua River his party 
was attached by Indians and only Smith and three others 
escaped. They made their way to Fort Vancouver, where 
Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay 
Company in those parts, not only relieved their necessities 
but sent out a party which recaptured their furs from the 
Indians. The good doctor paid Smith $20,000 for the furs. 
Following the trails made by Jedediah Smith, one is im- 
pressed with the fearlessness and sagacity of this man, little 
more than a boy, who, almost alone, made such expeditions 
^ Chittenden. 



68 THE PATHBREAKERS 

over mountains, across the deserts and up and down the 
Pacific coast. 

Another attempt as unsuccessful as Bonneville's to break 
into the Rocky Mountain fur trade was made by Nathaniel 
Wyeth, of Boston, and a company made up largely of New 
Englanders. They knew little about the mountains and had 
no conception of the difficulties to be overcome by him who 





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FORT HALL 

would wrest riches from their rocky strongholds. They did 
not realize what vast stretches of desert had to be crossed, 
what interminable leagues of cactus and sagebrush they 
would find, without streams and frequently destitute of 
game. They knew little of the Indian and his ways, and 
least of all did they know what hostility they would meet 
from their white brothers who were already installed in this 
wild land and felt it all too small to admit any newcomers. 
We find Wyeth and his Bostonians at the rendezvous in 
Pierre's Hole in July, 1832. Here there was a fierce fight with 
the Blackfeet, which gave many of Wyeth's men all they 
wanted of the wilderness, and fully half of his little force 
turned back. He went to Fort Vancouver, hoping to es- 



THE FUR TRADERS 69 

tablish a trade in furs and fish, but the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany would sell him nothing, the ship he expected from Bos- 
ton never came, and he returned to the East beaten but not 
yet conquered. In 1834 he came out again with a load of 
goods for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. They had 
contracted for those goods, but just when Wyeth arrived 
control of the company was passing from Smith, Jackson, 




A GROS\"ENTRE DAGGER 

and William Sublette to Fitzpatrick, Bridger, and Milton 
Sublette. These new partners repudiated the bargain, and 
Wyeth had a lot of unsalable supplies on his hands. To 
house them until they could be sold he built Fort Hall on the 
Portneuf , nine miles above where it empties into the Snake, 
near the site of the present Pocatello, Idaho. Then he 
pushed on to Fort Vancouver, but found the Hudson's Bay 
Company as hostile and powerful as ever, and finally had to 
give up and go home. He had made a plucky fight against 
great odds. We remember him for his pluck — a quality 
worth remembrance in any man — and also for the facts 
that he built historic old Fort Hall, that he brought the 
Methodist missionaries, Jason and Daniel Lee, to Oregon, 
and that after his failure some of his Company took land in 
Willamette Valley, grouped themselves about the mission, 
and did the first farming there, — becoming the nucleus for 
the American settlement that was to wrest all that region 
from the English, and abundantly avenge Wyeth's wrongs 
upon the Hudson's Bay Company. 



70 THE PATHBREAKERS 

4. THE AMERICAN FUR COMPANY 

John Jacob Astor was the American Fur Company. He 
managed the affairs, put his money into the concern and 
reaped all of the profits. This company was incorporated in 
New York as early as 1808, but before this Astor had done 
extensive trading in the region along the Great Lakes, with 
his headquarters at Michilimackinac, under the name of the 
Southwest Company. After operating in this region he 
organized the Pacific Fur Company with headquarters at 
Astoria. On account of the war with England in 1813 this 
trade was ruined on the Pacific coast. In 1816 Astor con- 
solidated all his interests in the American Fur Company, and 
the western department of this company had its headquarters 
at St. Louis. 

All other fur traders at St. Louis opposed the establish- 
ment of Astor's headquarters at this place. In fact he met 
opposition at every step and on every side, as he was looked 
upon as a monopolist in the fur trade, and if the truth were 
told he really had about one half of the fur business in the 
United States. The sympathy was with the small traders, 
because the public believed that this large company would 
ultimately crush whatever lay in its way. 

Astor's success is not due to any assistance he may have 
received from other traders, but to his own sound judgment 
and cautious business principles. This American Fur Com- 
pany had one serious rival in the Columbia Fur Company, 
but this company finally became a part of Astor's company 
and transacted business under the name of the "Upper Mis- 
souri Outfit," or '^U. M. 0.," and its operations were confined 
to all of the territory above the mouth of the Big Sioux. 

This combination occurred in 1828, and the consolidation of 
these two companies made the American Fur Company the 
strongest one in the business. It was at this time that Ashley 



THE FUR TRADERS 71 

was reaping his richest harvest in furs, making this newly 
formed company very anxious to go to the mountains and 
invade his territory. It was thought best, however, to get 
into those regions gradually, and establish permanent posts at 
the strategic points. Kenneth McKenzie built Fort Union 
at the junction of the Yellowstone and the Missouri, ruling 
like a king a territory larger than many European kingdoms. 
This proved to be the best built fort on the Missouri, and, 
with the exception of Fort Bent on the Arkansas, was the 
very best in the entire West. 

Up to this time the country of the Blackfeet on the Maria's 
River had been uninvaded. The Missouri Fur Company, 
Ashley, and Henry had all made unsuccessful attempts, but 
were always driven back by these fierce warriors. These 
Blackfeet did all of their trading with the British, who did 
their best to perpetuate the feud between the Indians and the 
trappers to the south. But the tributaries of the Missouri 
in that region were full of rich furs and McKenzie was deter- 
mined to possess them. McKenzie made a treaty with the 
Blackfeet through the cleverness and bravery of a noted 
trapper named Berger, whom he sent with twelve volunteers 
into the heart of their country. Audacity alone saved their 
scalps. Berger brought the Blackfeet to Fort Union, though 
his ingenuity and firmness were taxed to the utmost to keep 
them from turning back, and he once had to pledge his scalp 
and all his horses that they would reach the fort in one more 
day. Reach it they did, and the treaty was made that 
wrested the larger part of this extensive business from the 
hands of the British. 

The American Fur Company, through detachments sent 
out at various times from Fort Union, built Fort Piegan at 
the junction of the Maria's and Missouri; Fort McKenzie, 
about six miles farther up the Missouri, after the Indians 
burned Fort Piegan; Fort Case at the mouth of the Big 



THE FUR TRADERS 



73 



Horn, in the Crow country near where Fort Manuel and 
Fort Henry had stood; Fort F. A. Chardon at the mouth of 
the Judith, where one of the most woeful of border treacheries 
was later committed; and, most famous of all. Fort Benton, 
below the Great Falls of the Missouri, where the thriving 




From Maximilian's Travels 

THE "YELLOWSTONE," THE FIRST STEAMBOAT TO GO ABOVE 
COUNCIL BLUFFS, 1832 

town of Benton, Montana, now stands. In other parts they 
had Fort Laramie near the junction of the North Platte and 
Laramie rivers, an old post of the Rocky Mountain Fur 
Company, which became famous in the history of the Oregon 
Trail; and Fort Pierre, named after Pierre Chouteau of the 
American Fur Company, where Pierre, South Dakota, now 
stands; besides nearly one hundred lesser posts in the heart 
of the fur country. 

Keel boats had been used on the Missouri up to 1832, but 
the enterprising McKenzie believed that a steamboat could 



74 THE PATHBREAKERS 

be successfully operated on the river, and finally obtained 
one, which he called the ''Yellowstone.'^ In 1832 this boat 
went as far north as Fort Tecumseh, about three miles above 
the junction of the Teton and the Missouri. This fort then 
was named Fort Pierre in honor of Pierre Chouteau, Jr. 
Never had steamboat gone up the Missouri above Council 
Bluffs, so 1832 marks the beginning of a new era for the 
Far West. The next year the ''Yellowstone" went as 
far north as Fort Union. Fort Benton was first reached 
in 1859. This marks the head of navigation on the Mis- 
souri, for the Great Falls are only a short distance above. 
Thus the steamboat was put into use for the north fur 
country, and continued in service until the arrival of the 
railroad. 

Mr. Astor wrote from France to Chouteau, one of his man- 
agers: "Your voyage in the 'Yellowstone' attracted much 
attention in Europe, and has been noted in all of the papers 
here." If the steamboat so impressed the people across the 
waters, what was the impression on the Indians? Chitten- 
den explains this in the following language: "Its power 
against current, as if moved by some supernatural agency, 
excited the keenest astonishment and even aroused a feeling 
of terror." The steamship to the native was a Fire Boat 
that walked on the waters; it was alive and must be a crea- 
tion of an evil spirit. 

The fur trade was the most potent factor in the early de- 
velopment of the Far West. The trappers found the paths, 
and some of them, notably Bonneville, mapped these un- 
known lands; they tamed the natives; they built the forts; 
they provided transportation by land and water. In their 
train were scientists, like Nuttall and Bradbury, and mission- 
aries, like Father De Smet, the Lees, Whitman and Spald- 
ing, to civilize and Christianize. When the soldier and the 
settler came to possess the land they found all these agencies 



THE FUR TRADERS 75 

ready made for their use. Not only is the era of furs the 
most romantic — it is also the most important in early 
western history. 

REFERENCES 

Chittenden. The American Fur Trade. 

Larpenteur. Forty Years a Fur Trader'. 

Dellenbaugh. Breaking the Wilderness. 

Coutant. History of Wyoming. 

Irving. Astoria. 

Schafer. History of the Pacific Northwest. 

Hough. The Way to the West. 

Semple. American History and Its Geographic Conditions. 

Irving. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville. 

Bradbury's Travels. 

Dye. McLoughlin and Old Oregon. 





"I (j .'H 

BLACKFEET PARCHMENT BAGS 



CHAPTER III 

THE GREAT TRAILS 

1. The Santa Fe Trail 3. The Oregon Trail 

2. The Gila Route and , the 4. The Great Salt Lake and 

Old Spanish Trail California Trails 

1. THE SANTA FE TRAIL 

In 1880 the first train over the Atchison, Topeka and 
Santa Fe railroad reached Santa Fe, and that picturesque 
road over which the explorers and travelers from the time 
of Cabeza had journeyed was no longer used for commercial 
purposes. Thus the old Santa Fe Trail, which had for 
centuries served the purpose of a highway between the 
Missouri and the Southwest, had its calling usurped by the 
iron road. 

When we read of the journeys of those indomitable men 
who hunted in the Northwest for furs, we always find that 
their effort was to establish friendly relations with Indians, 
for without this the rewards of their labors were most uncer- 
tain. In contrast to this the men on the Santa Fe Trail 
made every endeavor to avoid the Indians and not to come 
into direct contact with them. 

Five years before Coronado pushed up northeast from 
Mexico to that will-o'-the-wisp city of Quivira, Alvar 
Nunez Cabeza de Vaca traveled on what in the years to come 
was known as the Santa Fe Trail. It was on this march that 
he encountered the countless herds of buffalo or American 
bison. In an account of his travels he speaks of the buffalo, 
saying, ''Cattle came as far as this. I think that they are 

76 



THE GREAT TRAILS 77 

about the size of those of Spain. They have small horns like 
the cows of Morocco, and the hair very long and flocky, 
hke that of the Merino; some are hght brown, others black. 
The Indians make blankets of the hides of those not full 
grown. They range over a district of more than four hundred 
leagues, and in the whole extent of the plain over which they 
run the people that inhabit near there descend and live 
on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout the 
country." 

Next we find De Soto in this trail region, as he is supposed 
to have camped on a spot near where Wichita, Kansas, is 
now located. This part of the country is also where Coronado 
pushed on with his picked horsemen to the north for the 
"city of stones," when most of his men went back to 
Mexico. 

In 1884 some mounds in McPherson County, Kansas, were 
opened and many interesting relics were found, among them 
a small piece of steel chain armor. This was the kind of 
protection that the Spanish soldiers wore during the time of 
Cabeza de Vaca, and Coronado. ''The probabiHty is that 
it was worn by one of De Soto's unfortunate men, as neither 
De Vaca nor Coronado experienced any difficulty with the 
savages of the great plains, because their leaders were humane 
and treated the Indians kindly, in contrast to De Soto, who 
was the most inhuman of all of the early Spanish ex- 
plorers."^ 

It is impossible to state exactly the date when commerce 
was started between Mexico and the United States by way 
of the Santa Fe Trail. As early as 1804 La Lande from Illi- 
nois carried on traffic with the people to the west of the 
Missouri. Then there was James Pursley, whom Pike 
spoke of as "the man of gold nuggets," who also went west 
to dispose of merchandise. Both of these men liked Santa 
1 Inman. The Old Santa Fe Trail. Crane & Co., Topeka. 








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o o 



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I I 



THE GREAT TRAILS 79 

F^ SO well that they never returned to tell of their adven- 
tures, but settled down in the land of their adoption. 

Pike's expedition taught the people of the United States 
that a route directly west from St. Louis, by the bend in the 
Arkansas, was a shorter and better one than by way of the 
Platte. ''It was strong-legged, stout-hearted Zebulon who 
told of the profits of the possible Spanish trade, and credit 
is usually given him for first outlining the historic trail 
along the Arkansas." ^ 

In 1812 McKnight, Baird,^ and Chambers with their 
associates started for Santa Fe, thinking that the embargo 
upon trade with the United States had been raised through 
the Declaration of Hidalgo in 1810. After a weary journey, 
following the directions laid down by Pike, the party reached 
Santa Fe only to find that the embargo was in full force. 
They were seized as spies, imprisoned, and all of their goods 
confiscated. Here they were kept in strict confinement 
for over nine years. After their release, in 1821, Chambers 
and McKnight started at once for the Missouri. On the 
way home McKnight was killed by the Indians, Chambers 
making the rest of the journey alone. Baird followed in a 
few months, making the entire distance without a com- 
panion. One would naturally think that after such an 
experience with the Spaniards one journey into the land 
of the enemy would be sufficient. Not so with Baird and 
Chambers, who made a second expedition in 1822. As they 
started very late in the season they had terrible hardships, 
and all their animals were frozen to death. The winter was 
spent near the present site of Dodge City. 

Captain Becknell,^ of Missouri, in 1821 started west to 

1 Hough. The Way to the West. Copyright, 1903. The Bobbs- 
Merrill Co. 

2 By some authorities, spelled Beard. 
^ Also spelled Bicknell. 



80 THE PATHBREAKERS 

trade with the Indians, but when on the headwaters of the 
Arkansas was prevailed upon by a party of Mexicans that 
he had met in the mountains to take his merchandise to 
Santa Fe. The exorbitant prices obtained for goods at 
Santa Fe started commerce to the West. To illustrate 
what prices were at that time it is only necessary to state 
that calico, and this of the most common kind, brought $2 
and $3 a yard. Becknell returned to Santa Fe the next year 
with $5,000 worth of goods of all descriptions. 

After arriving on that point of the Arkansas now called 
the ''Caches," Becknell started out southwest over the 
Cimarron desert, a much shorter though a more dangerous 
route. From this point of the journey he must be con- 
sidered a pathbreaker, and he has for this reason been called 
the ''Father of the Santa Fe Trail." That is to say, Becknell 
first made the trail across the Cimarron desert, although 
others had broken the way from the Missouri to the 
" Caches." The Caches derived its name from the fact that 
Becknell "cached" some of his goods at this point when he 
had too many to make the desert trip. 

Becknell's party suffered intensely from thirst, for the 
small supply of water carried in their canteens soon became 
exhausted. So great was their need that they killed their 
dogs in order to drink the blood, and even cut off the ears of 
their mules for this purpose. They also went so far as to 
kill a buffalo that wandered across their path, and drank the 
water from its stomach, which they said "was an exquisite 
delight." Going in the direction from which the buffalo 
came, they found a river, quenched their thirst, and returned 
with filled canteens to those who were too weak to follow 
them to the river. 

Finally the party reached Santa Fe, being the first white 
men to make the journey through this terrible desert, also 
the first to make the trip in wagons. Others followed in this 



THE GREAT TRAILS 81 

path, and in spite of all their care to provide water many 
parties endured great hardship and even death on the 
desolate Cimarron Trail. 

Jedediah Smith, who had made such perilous trips to 
San Diego and Vancouver, lost his life in this desert while 
hunting for water. Smith, Jackson, and Sublette sold their 
interest in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, went south 
to engage in the Santa Fe trade, and on their very first 
venture were lost in the Cimarron desert. The party was 
dying of thirst when Smith struck out alone to find the 
needed water. After hours of toil in the burning sun he 
crossed the bed of the Cimarron River, but could not find a 
drop of water. Still Smith knew the desert streams, and 
kneeling down scooped up a handful of sand and made a hole 
in the bed of the river. At once the water commenced to 
seep into the hole, and there was soon enough for him to 
satisfy his burning thirst. Just as he was leaning over to 
drink, a band of Comanches came from their hiding-place 
and filled his body with arrows. 

The date of the earliest settlement of Santa Fe is unknown. 
Historians do not agree upon the exact time of its founding. 
Some claim that Cortez founded the city, others that to 
Coronado belongs the honor. Of this one thing we may be 
sure, that before Jamestown was settled, or before the 
Pilgrims made their landing on the Atlantic coast, there 
existed a town in the Southwest known as Cuidad Real de 
San Francisco de la Santa Fe. The date of the founding of 
the city is variously placed at 1540 to 1616. A careful 
statement made by one who has extensively studied the 
question places the date at 1605.^ 

There is but little recorded of the early history of this 
ancient dwelling-place. The Spaniards doubtless found the 
aborigines easy to conquer, and ready to submit to the 

1 Dellenbaugh. Breaking the Wilderness. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



THE GREAT TRAILS 83 

authority of those who had subdued them. Conditions 
continued peaceful for many years, but the heavy tasks 
imposed upon the Indians, who worked in the mines, aroused 
in the hearts of these natives a spirit of revolt, and with this 
came the desire to possess their lands again. Some of these 
Indians believed that they had the blood of Montezuma in 
their veins, and could by fighting regain their homes and 
their liberty. In 1680 a terrible insurrection took place 
not only at Santa Fe but generally in that part of Mexico. 
All of the churches of Santa Fe were sacked, vestments 
stolen, altars destroyed, and monasteries burned. The 
Spaniards were then driven from New Mexico, and for 
twelve years the Indians remained in possession of their 
lands. 

De Vargas at the head of a small force reconquered the 
territory, and henceforth a more humane treatment of the 
Indians resulted in better conditions generally. The Indians, 
however, never seemed thoroughly subdued. They were 
allowed their own government and certain tracts of land, 
but for many years were restless and hated their conquerors. 
In 1837 they united with the Mexican insurgents in another 
bloody battle against the Spaniards. Much of the severity 
with which the American traders were treated is explained 
by the fact that the Spaniards believed that they incited 
rebellion among the Mexicans and Indians. 

After the Santa Fe Trail was established there was con- 
stant danger for the individual trader making the journey 
alone. As a result the caravan system was adopted. The 
caravan at first consisted of a train of loaded mules and 
burros, pack-animals as they were called. This limited the 
traffic, as only a comparatively small load could be taken by 
each animal. With the coming of the wheeled vehicles in 
1824 a new impetus was given to the trade over this trail. 
Now regularly organized companies carried on the traffic 



THE GREAT TRAILS 



85 






SAHTA » 
TRAIL 



with great wagons drawn by oxen, mules, and horses, and 
hauling $30,000 worth of merchandise in a single trip. By 
1843 the trade had reached its height, and thereafter declined 
rapidly, but during the twenty years of its existence it 
furnished some of the most _«==3*^ 

striking episodes in the 
early history of the West. 

As St. Louis was the head- 
quarters for outfitting the 
early explorers and the fur 
traders, so Independence^ 
was the starting-place for 
the trade of the Santa Fe 
and the Oregon trails. Here 
goods sent from St. Louis 
by boat were transferred 
to wagons or pack animals. 
Soon Westport, now Kan- 
sas City, became the point 
of transshipment, because 
it had a safer boat land- 
ing. This bend of the Mis- 
souri fixed the location for a large city, and here is one of 
the best examples of the influence of geographic facts in de- 
termining city growth. 

For forty miles both of the great trails ran over the same 
road. Then travelers came to a post with the sign, ''Road 
to Oregon." Thus simply was announced a road over 2,000 
miles long. To the right led a road that became a trans- 
continental highway for the early settler; to the left ran a 
transcontinental trade-route,— either leading to perils and 
hardships; both to possible wealth and power. 

^ Situated five miles east of present Kansas City. 



DABBHTBB ■» TB,^„ 

AMERI6AII maisrm 

mm TERRITORY or 
NEW MEXICO 
(810 



MARKER OX SAXTA YE TRAIL 



86 THE PATHBREAKERS 

2. THE GILA ROUTE AND THE OLD SPANISH TRAIL 

Not all who went to Sante Fe with their merchandise 
over the Trail returned to the States. Many of the mer- 
chants or their agents settled in that ancient city, where 
they carried on further commerce. This trade was carried 
on chiefly to the south and west. To the south the wagon 
trains went as far as Chihuahua. The trade at this place 
became particularly active and profitable, so that between 
1830 and 1840 it absorbed nearly one half of the Missouri 
caravans. To the west from Santa Fe there were no 
market places such as had been found to the south; but 
the trapper, following the streams, found the beaver in 
abundance. Crossing the Continental Divide from the val- 
leys of the Rio Grande and the Arkansas, he came to the 
Gila, which he could follow without great difficulty to the 
Gulf of California, or to the Gunnison, which emptied into 
the Grand, which latter conducted him to its junction with 
the Green. From this point the united stream is known as 
the Colorado, and becomes useless as a highway because of 
its mad race through its wonderful canon. Here he struck 
boldly out across the desert, crossed the Seveir and the 
Virgin rivers, skirted Death Valley, and so through weary 
leagues of parching desert came to the smiling California 
valleys, and finally Los Angeles. This was known as the Old 
Spanish Trail. The one along the Gila was the Gila Trail. 
Both aimed for southern California, where horses and mules 
were cheap and where cloth and metal goods brought a 
good price. In early days the famous copper mines of Santa 
Rita, along the Gila, had attracted the Spanish, Americans, 
and Mexicans, who with their pack-horses made well-beaten 
paths toward the waters of the Pacific. Thus the miner and 
the trapper encountered one another along the same stream. 
It was not a difficult or a dangerous undertaking to push 



THE GREAT TRAILS 87 

on out to the coast, and thus ultimately the Gila Route came 
to be the pathway to San Diego. The shortest way to Cali- 
fornia from St. Louis was over this route by way of Santa Fe. 
It was along this line that the United States Government 
in 1846-47 made surveys for a transcontinental railroad. 
Sylvester and James Ohio Pattie, father and son, trapped 
along the Gila, journeyed to San Diego, and by this means 
established regular commercial relations between St. Louis, 
Santa Fe, and California. The Gila Trail after this was 
quite extensively used, for it proved to be comparatively 
safe from the attacks of the Indians. Kit Carson took this 
route for the States in 1846 when he carried Fremont's 
message for the authorities at Washington. Over this same 
trail General Kearny hurried to California to assume mil- 
itary control of the Pacific coast. 

Thus we have established a southern transcontinental 
route leading people to the southern coast of the Pacific. 
While these trading expeditions were going over the Santa 
Fe, Gila, and Old Spanish trails, Oregon Territory was at- 
tracting real settlers over that long and dangerous route 
known as the Oregon Trail. 



3. THE OREGON TRAIL 

To Wilson Price Hunt and his expedition for the Pacific 
Fur Company must be given the distinction of being the 
first explorers over this famous route. Though Lewis and 
Clark had twice gone over the country lying between the 
Missouri and the Pacific, they were never near or upon this 
trail until they came to the Columbia River west of its 
junction with the Snake. 

For a distance of forty miles from Independence the Santa 
Fe and the Oregon trails were one and the same. After that 
their paths became farther and farther apart, until one with 



88 THE PATHBREAKERS 

its western extension reached the southwest portion of the 
United States, San Diego and Los Angeles; while the other 
pushed up to and beyond the Rockies until it reached the 
other extremity of our possessions on the Pacific coast. 

The Oregon Trail followed the route of least resistance, 
for it was the path of wild animals. Here was first found the 
narrow and well-beaten path made by the first possessors 
of the country, the buffalo, the antelope, the elk, and the 
deer; in their path came the Indian, who was followed by 
the trapper, who in his turn had the explorer at his heels, 
to be foHowed by the pioneer, the settler, the wagon road, 
and at last the railroad. This is the history of the building 
of the most of the Oregon Trail — beast, Indian, pack-train, 
wagon, locomotive. So when Hunt, the first of white men 
on this trail, made his footprints toward the west, he found 
those of the Indian pointing the same way, and the Indian 
had only followed the tracks made by the buffalo and the 
bear. 

The next pathmaker on this trail after the Astorians had 
done their work was Ashley, who came in 1823 with his 
Missouri men and trappers, and it was one of Ashley's men, 
Etienne Provost, who discovered South Pass, the most 
significant find in the history of the trail. Ashley was 
followed by Bonneville with his wagons in 1832, then in 
1833 came Wyeth, who built Fort Hall, the first resting- 
place along the road. Robert Campbell and William 
Sublette in this same year built Fort Laramie, another 
supply station and place of safety, and in the years to come 
the most famous resting-place along the route. 

With the early trappers on this trail was James Bridger, 
one of the party that discovered South Pass, and he it was 
in 1843 who built the first post on the Oregon Trail intended 
from the first for the use of emigrants. Fort Bridger in the 
southwestern part of the present Wyoming. Laramie, 



THE GREAT TRAILS 



89 




FORT BRIDGER 

Bridger, Hall, Boiise — these were the forts that served as 
stations on the Oregon Trail, and they were hundreds of 
miles apart. 

Over the trail, which by this time was getting so well 
marked as to be known to the Indians as the ''Great Medi- 
cine Road of the Whites," went Whitman and Spalding with 
their brides, the first white women to traverse this wild land. 
Father De Smet came in 1840, followed by Fremont in 1842 
and Parkman in 1846. By this time people were coming by 




FOBT BOISE 



90 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



the hundreds and then they came by the thousands for 
these were the days of the Mormons, who in 1847 sought 
the ''land of promise" in the territory of the West, by way 
of the Oregon Trail. After them came the ''forty-niners" 
in their mad rush for California, the land of gold. Even 
though all of these travelers did not journey over the trail 




CHIMNEY ROCK IN 1910. EZRA MEEKER RETRACTING THE 
OREGON TRAIL (Nebraska) 

for the entire distance, they helped to make its path deeper 
and more lasting, until it became so broad and deep that all 
the years since that time have failed to erase it. 

Francis Parkman, fresh from college and wishing to 
obtain some new material for his literary work, went over 
the Oregon Trail in 1846, spending a part of this summer at 
Fort Laramie and the rest of the time in one of the villages 
of the Sioux, learning their manner of living, their language 
and customs. This first-hand information was embodied in 
his "Oregon Trail." No account of this trail can be com- 
plete without reference to this classic piece of literature. 



THE GREAT TRAILS 



91 



When Parkman went over the trail it was not new, for 
there were numerous westbound wagons ahead of him and 
as many back of him, all going in the same direction. Near 
Fort Laramie he met one of Daniel Boone's grandsons, and 
traded horses with another grandson. These Boones were 
well scattered along the trail, for we find one of them in 
Oregon, Chloe Boone, who married one of the Governors of 




FORT LARAMIE 

that state. One camped on the present site of Denver and 
negotiated the sale of Colorado for the Indians to the 
United States; one was in California, and one in Texas. ^ 

In the years when this host of emigrants went over the 
trail it became littered with bedding, stoves, furniture, 
trunks, all throTVTi away by the travelers to Hghten their 
load. Parkman says: *'It is worth noting that on the 
Platte one may sometimes see the scattered wTecks of 
ancient claw^ooted tables, well waxed and rubbed; or massive 
bureaus of carved wood. These, some of them no doubt 
the reUcs of ancestral prosperity in colonial times, must 
1 Dye. The Conquest. 




y^ o 



23 



W 



w 



3 ^ 

So 

aw 

CS3 Q 



THE GREAT TRAILS 93 

have encountered strange vicissitudes. Brought, perhaps, 
originally from England; then, with the declining fortunes of 
their owners, borne across the Alleghanies to the wilder- 
ness of Ohio and Kentucky; then to Illinois or Missouri; and 
now at last fondly stowed away for the interminable journey 
to Oregon. But the stern privations of the way are little 
anticipated. The cherished relic is thrown out to scorch 
and crack on the hot prairie." ^ 

There are a few well-known landmarks on this trail that 
deserve special mention. On the Platte just east of the 
boundary line between Nebraska and Wyoming is the 
prominent geological formation called Chimney Rock, with 
cyHndrical rocks piled up like a tower. This can be seen 
for many miles. About one hundred miles west of this is 
historic Fort Laramie. This fort, the Laramie Plains, 
Laramie Mountains, and Laramie River all derive their name 
from the French Canadian trapper Jacques La Ramie, often 
called Joseph Laramie. As fate would have it, this trapper 
lost his life about 1820 near the mouth of the river that 
bears his name. 

This fort at different times has borne the name of Wil- 
liams, John, and Laramie. When it was established it was 
the center of trading with the Ogalalla bands of the Sioux, 
and with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. After purchasing 
the post the American Fur Company expended about $10,000 
for improving it, making it larger and better able to with- 
stand the attacks of the natives. The overland travelers, 
particularly at the time of the gold excitement, were often 
attacked by the Indians, and for this reason the Government 
turned the post into a military fort. This fort was built 
of sun-dried bricks with walls twenty feet high and four feet 
thick, enclosing a space two hundred and fifty feet long and 
two hundred feet wide. Within this enclosure were a dozen 
^ Parkman. The Oregon Trail. Little, Brown & Co. 



94 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



or more buildings, including a blacksmith shop and carpenter 
shop, meat and ice houses, and a corral large enough to 
accommodate two hundred horses. 

On the trail just west of the fort there is another striking 
landmark. This is Independence Rock, which is situated 
eight hundred thirty-eight miles from the town of Independ- 









■■^'1 




1 




■ 


l^^^^^^^gl "^^'•i ^ 


im 


H^^^^^^H 


^^^1 



INDEPENDENCE ROCK, THE "DESERT REGISTER," AND THE 
OREGON TRAIL TO THE EXTREME RIGHT 

ence, at the commencement of the trail. This rock marks 
the beginning of the Sweetwater valley. This name was 
given to the stream because its water tasted sweet com- 
pared with the alkali waters that abounded in the region. 
Independence Rock is visible for many miles before it is 
reached. It covers about twenty-seven acres, and on its 
sides to-day may be seen hundreds of names placed there by 
the travelers on the trail. Father De Smet called the rock 
**The Great Register of the Desert." About one hundred 
miles west of this rock, and one thousand from the com- 
mencement of the trail, is South Pass, practically marking 



THE GREAT TRAILS 



95 



the central point between the Missouri River and the Pacific 
coast. This is a pass in the Continental Divide, not a narrow 
opening, but a broad valley through which wagons can pass 
with perfect ease. When South Pass is reached there is 
again "a, parting of the ways'' for at this point the waters 
flow toward the west and toward the east. 

After leaving Fort Laramie, there was no stopping-place 
for supplies until Fort Bridger was reached. Here Bridger 

made all kinds of black- „.-^-,s*i^^^!fe»-' 

smith repairs, and sold 
supplies to the emi- 
grants, and many were 
needed after a thousand 
miles of travel. This post 
was also used for trad- 
ing with the Indians. 
After this the next 
stopping-place was Fort 
Hall, nine miles above 
the junction ofthePor- 
tneuf and the Snake, 
the first station on the 
waters of the Columbia. 

Many wagons going 
over the trail were left at this fort, where pack-horses 
were substituted. The Hudson's Bay post. Fort Boise, near 
the mouth of the Boise River, always meant to the explorer 
that there were only five hundred miles left to travel 
before reaching the journey's end at Fort Vancouver. 

The Santa Fe Trail was seven hundred seventy-five miles 
long; the Oregon Trail two thousand twenty. The Santa 
Fe Trail remained a trade route to the end; the Oregon 
Trail, almost from the first, was a colonist's route. The 
Santa Fe Trail, proper, had little to do with mountains; the 




FIRST STONE ERECTED IN NEBRASKA 

TO MARK THE OVERLAND TRAIL 
1811, Start of the Astoria Companj'. 
1869, completion of the Union Pacific Railroad. 



96 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



Oregon Trail crossed three great ranges. The Santa Fe 
Trail was harassed by three tribes of Indians; the Oregon 
Trail by ten. The Oregon Trail was very much the longer 
and more difficult, but it was proportionately more useful 
in the development of the Far West. 




OLDEST CUST0:M-H0USE in CALIFORNIA, MONTEREY 
Over this building the flags of three nations floated, Spain, Mexico, and United 
States. 



4. THE GREAT SALT LAKE AND CALIFORNL/l TRAILS 

The Old Salt Lake Trail is practically over the same road 
as the Oregon Trail. Over this trail the Mormons passed, 
save that they left the Missouri at Council Bluffs instead of 
Independence, made their own road to Fort Laramie, and 
after leaving Fort Bridger struck southwest and came into 
the valley of Great Salt Lake through Emigration Caiion. 

The California Trail began on the Oregon Trail near the 
northern spur of the Wasatch Mountains, on the bend of the 
Bear River, several miles east of Fort Hall. From here the 
trail took a southwest turn and passed the north end of the 



THE GREAT TRAILS 97 

Great Salt Lake, followed the north side of Humboldt Lake, 
through the Sierras to the junction of the American Fork 
and the Sacramento rivers. At this point the trail crossed 
Smith's path of 1828 when he went to Fort Vancouver from 
Monterey. This trail also followed Walker's path to a point 
near Carson. After Salt Lake City became a city of impor- 
tance all parties bound for California over the Oregon Trail 
went there to lay in supplies to last them for the final eight 
hundred miles. Thence they went south of the Great Lake 
through Rush Valley, and westward across the desert to the 
Sierras. Here they fell into Walker's or the Old Cahfornia 
Trail, and so crossed to Sacramento. Those who wished to 
reach southern California kept south from Salt Lake City 
by Utah Lake, and then moved via the Old Spanish Trail 
to Los Angeles and San Diego. The route by Rush Valley 
and across the desert became well traveled, and soon had 
stopping-places at convenient intervals, for over it went the 
overland stage and the pony express. 

REFERENCES 

Prince's Historical Sketches of New Mexico. 

Dellenbaugh. Breaking the Wilderness. 

Inman. The Old Santa Fe Trail. 

Gregg. Commerce of the Prairies. 

Hough. The Way to the West. 

Bancroft. History of California. 

Thwaites. Edition of Pattie's Personal Narrative. 

Semple. American History and Its Geographic Conditions. 

Chittenden. American Fur Trade. 

Parkman. The Oregon Trail. 

Inman. The Great Salt Lake Trail. 

Irving. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville. 

Paxson. The Last of the American Frontier. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE MISSIONS 

1. The Catholics in the 3. Whitman and Spalding 

SouTirv\^EST 4. Father De Smet 

2. The Methodists in Oregon 5. The Mormons in Utah 

1. THE CATHOLICS IN THE SOUTHWEST 

The Catholics more than any other church or sect have 
conquered by Sword and Cross. They have subdued and 
Christianized at the same time. The rehgion of the Spanish 
Cathohc kept pace with his battles, hence no history can be 
written of those early settlers in the Southwest without giv- 
ing attention to the missionary pioneers. 

It has been said that the reason that the Pueblo Indians 
enjoy to-day the possession of their lands is that the Spaniards 
made special laws for the natives by which they might have 
undisturbed possession of their lands for all time. The 
natives after being brought under the rule of Spain were 
taught obedience, and with that obedience came protection 
to them in their homes and for their families. To this the 
Spaniards added a process of educating and Christianizing, 
although it was a difficult task to make the natives reject 
their old form of religion and adopt that of the alien race. 

''The religions of our North American Indians had many 
astonishing and dreadful features; but they were mild and 
civilized compared with the hideous rites of Mexico and the 
southern lands." ^ Their religion was one of fear, revenge, 
human sacrifice, and idols. It was this form of religion that 
1 Lummis. The Spanish Pioneers. A. C. McClurg & Co. 
98 



THE MISSIONS 99 

the missionaries had to contend with and attempt to sub- 
stitute for it their rehgion of love, obedience, and brotherhood. 

Fray Marcos, who first went to the *' Seven Cities" scout- 
ing for Coronado in 1539, was a true type of the pioneer 
missionary. The field in which he did his missionary work 
was what is now New Mexico and Arizona. It was a lonely 
life, full of sacrifice and incredible hardships, that this 
apostle led in the desert. Indeed, all of the priests who were 
brought to New Mexico by Coronado did true missionary 
work; they had no hope for worldly reward; their compen- 
sation lay in the consciousness of God's work well done. 

The Southwest has many old ruins of churches which 
were built over three hundred years ago. As far back as 
1598 there was a small chapel, the second church in the 
United States and the first in what is now New Mexico, built 
by the missionaries at San Gabriel de los Espafiolas, where 
Chamita is now located. It must be remembered that three 
years before the Mayflower came to America Christian ser- 
vice was being held in at least eleven churches in the region 
now called New Mexico, and in one other church a hundred 
miles toward the Pacific. 

Those who sought to make homes in the desert of the 
Southwest had to confine their operations to both sides of 
the Rio Grande in order to obtain sufficient water, but the 
missionaries knew no boundary lines and pushed out into 
the desert in all directions. As early as 1629 these fearless 
and God-fearing men had penetrated the wilderness to Zuni, 
many miles west of Santa Fe. To this day one of the 
churches built by them is in splendid state of preservation. 

On the present boundary line between Mexico and the 
United States Fray Garcia de San Francisco, in 1662, built 
a church long, lonely miles from any Spanish settlement. 
Not only did the Spaniards build along the boundary lines; 
but half a century before our nation was born they built 



100 THE PATHBREAKERS 

in one of our territories, New Mexico, ''half a hundred 
permanent churches, nearly all of stone, and nearly all for 
the express benefit of the Indians. That is a missionary 
record which has never been equalled elsewhere in the 
United States." i 

These priests all came from Spain by the way of Old 
Mexico. After reporting to the higher authorities at Santa 
Fe, they were assigned a mission which might be near at 
hand or might be one a hundred miles away. To a lonely 
spot the missionary priests made their journey, generally 
unescorted, across the trackless desert. At a village of savage 
natives the priest would establish his little chapel, and 
attempt to teach the gospel in a tongue totally unknown to 
his listeners, whose language was equally unknown to him. 

In this lonely place, far removed from all trace of civiliza- 
tion, the priest was absolutely at the mercy of these strange, 
foreign-speaking people. If they wished to starve him, or 
even to kill him, he could only submit. No word would ever 
get back to his church how he had died defending the Faith. 
This is the highest type of sacrifice, that one die for principle 
and no one know it. 

It has been from these ''Fathers" that we have obtained 
some of our most valuable early history of the southwest 
country. These priests who were sent out to the frontier 
were not of an ignorant class, but were educated and able 
to observe and record what went on about them. They 
wrote of the way the natives lived and of the language they 
spoke. 

Within the present boundaries of California, the first 
Catholic mission was established at San Diego in 1769. 
This was during the time when the colonies on the Atlantic 
coast were remonstrating with England over her tax on tea, 
glass, paints, and paper. Little these pious people thought 

^ Lummis. 



THE MISSIONS 



101 



or knew of the religious work that was going on at the other 
side of the continent. Among the Spanish '^ Padres'' was 
Padre Junipero Serra, a member of the Franciscan order, 
who estabhshed this first mission at San Diego in July, 1769, 
and during the same year also founded the San Carlos 




SAN CARLOS MISSION, FOUNDED BY PADRE JUNIPERO SERRA, 
1769, MONTEREY 

Mission at Monterey, where he spent his last days in begin- 
ning to colonize California, teaching the Indians the Word 
of God and the rudiments of agriculture. When Father 
Serra died in 1784 he was at the head of all of the missions 
in CaUfornia, and noted for his organizing ability and saint- 
liness. 

All of the missions established by the Catholics north of 
San Diego were known as the Northern Missions. To these 
missions the name of California ultimately was attached, 



102 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



a name which had long been given to those on the peninsula 
south of San Diego, while Upper California was called Alta 
California. The Jesuit order in Lower California was super- 
seded in 1767 by the Franciscan order. This order at once 
attempted the establishment of many other missions, and 
founded San Diego in 1769. To the harbor of San Diego 




Southern Pacific Jiailwaij 

SANTA BARBARA MISSION, FOUNDED BY PADRE JUNIPERO 
SERRA, 1786 

these priests took their domestic animals and formed a 
permanent settlement. From here they went north, and 
in time established missions at Santa Barbara, Monterey, 
San Jose, Santa Cruz, and San Juan. In fact, before the end 
of the century the Catholics had established missions all 
the way between San Diego and San Francisco. 

There was no overland communication between the 
missions of New Mexico and California, although attempts 
were made to establish connection by the way of the desert 
and mountains. As the missions of California had grown 



THE MISSIONS 103 

rich and self-sustaining, there was no special need of com- 
munication with the world directly east of them. When 
communication was established some sixty years later it 
was the beginning of the end. The long years of Spanish 
possession in the Southwest had served to prepare the way 
for another people, more pushing and aggressive, who were 
destined to found here one of the richest states of our 
nation. 

2. THE METHODISTS IN OREGON 

There were notable early laborers in the country drained 
by the Columbia. They went there originally at the request 
of the Indians, who wanted the ''white man's religion" 
brought to their tribes. It has been said that the missionary 
work with the Oregon Indians began in a romance and ended 
in a tragedy. Possibly the following story of the Flathead 
braves is no more than a romance, but there is good reason 
to believe that something of the sort happened. 

For many years after Lewis and Clark had passed through 
the country of the Flatheads and the Nez Perces, the 
Indians talked of the white man and his ways. In some way 
an Indian had obtained possession of a high silk hat at the 
time Lewis and Clark's expedition went west; and for thirty 
years this old, high, black headgear was a symbol of the 
white man. The hat was passed from head to head as a 
badge of honor, and he who wore it was very proud. The 
Indians said that Lewis and Clark also carried with them a 
long, straight piece of iron from which they could command 
the thunder and lightning, and that, in addition to this awe- 
inspiring rod, the explorers carried a ''brass voice" that 
could make a noise louder than the howl of the bear or the 
roar of the buffalo. These mysterious instruments were to 
the Indians a sign that the white man was the favorite child 
of the "Great Spirit." They also said that the white man 



104 THE PATHBREAKERS 

had a ''Book of Heaven" which told him how to Hve 
happily, and how to reach the happy hunting-ground after 
death. 

It seems that the Flatheads finally decided to send for 
that wonderful book, for in the fall of 1831 four Flathead 
braves appeared in St. Louis, saying that they had jour- 
neyed on foot for many moons to reach the white man to 
beg for the book, and for teachers who might show them 
how to use it. Captain Clark, now governor, who was 
then in charge of Indian affairs for all the region west of 
the Missouri, sent them to the various churches of the 
town. They were feted and made much of, taken to theaters, 
balls, receptions, and great dinners, until one of the simple 
sons of the mountains, Black Eagle, succumbed that fall 
to the strain and was buried at the Catholic cathedral in 
St. Louis, far from his home and his people. In the early 
spring another of the chiefs. The Man-of-the-Morning, died, 
leaving the two younger men to convey the message from 
civilization to their tribes. These two chiefs started home 
in the spring of 1832, on the steamboat "Yellowstone," 
when it made its first trip up the Missouri, but only one, 
Rabbit-Skin-Leggins, lived to reach his people, No-Horns- 
on-His-Head having died on the journey somewhere near 
the mouth of the Yellowstone. 

Let us hope that the sole survivor was the chief that made 
the eloquent appeal which stirred the religious people of the 
East into action. This fine specimen of Indian eloquence 
was delivered at a farewell diuner given by Captain Clark, 
and it galvanized into life the sleeping missionary spirit of the 
East. With a mournful sense of failure, the chief said: *'I 
came to you over the trail of many moons from the setting 
sun. You were the friends of my fathers, who all have gone 
the long way, I came with an eye partly open for my people, 
who sit in darkness. How can I go back blind to my blind 



THE MISSIONS 



105 



people? I made my way to you with strong arms, through 

many enemies and strange lands, that I might carry back 

much to them. I go back with both arms broken and empty. 

Two fathers came with us; they were the braves of many 

winters and wars. We leave them asleep by your great 

water and wigwams. 

They were tired in many 

moons. My people sent 

me to get the white man's 

book of Heaven. You 

make my feet heavy with 

gifts and my moccasins 

will grow old in carrying 

them. When I tell my 

blind people, after one 

more snow, in the big 

council that I did not 

bring the book, no word 

will be spoken by the old 

men or the young braves. 

One by one they w^ill rise 

up and go out in silence. 

My people wdll die in 

darkness, and they will 

go a long path to other 

hunting-grounds. No white man will go with them, and no 

white man's book to make the way plain." 

The Methodists were first to respond to this stirring appeal 
in 1834. They sent Jason and Daniel Lee^ to open a mission, 
in ''Oregon," which then embraced a vast region since 
divided into the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, 

* Associated with the Lees were Cyrus Shepard, C. M.Walker, and 
P. L. Edwards, who journeyed west with the Httle band from the 
Missouri River. 




DR. JOHN McLOUGHLIN 



106 Till-] P.VrilUUKAKERS 

wostoni INIontana, and northwestern Wyoniini^;. Wyeth 
was just starting for the West on his seeond trip at this time, 
and the missionaries aeeompanied him. The Lees did not 
hasten directly to the Fhitheads upon reaching the Umd of 
the Cohnnbia, but decided, after consultation with that 
sage adviser. Dr. IMcLoughlin, to settle on the fertile coast 
lands, where greater protection could be afforded them and 
where there was at least as much need of their services as 
among the Indians in the more desolate mountain regions. 
In the beautiful valley of the Willamette were many Indians, 
and French Canadians with Indian wives and half-breed 
children, who needed not only the *' White Man's Book" 
but also schools and other civilizing forces. 

So these spiritual pioneers journeyed beyond the land 
of the Flatheads and settled in the Willamette Valley, not 
far south of Fort Vancouver. Their mission became a 
nucleus for American settlement, and their Indian school 
developed into Willamette University. This was the 
humble beginning of American occupation that finally 
thwarted the plans of the Hudson's Bay Comi^in}' and 
saved Oresion to the Union. 



3. WHITMAN AND SPALDING 

The American Board of Commissioners for Foregin 
Missions, representing both the Presbyterians and the 
Congregationalists, was next to act. It sent out in 1835 
Rev. Samuel Parker and Dr. Marcus Whitman to look over 
the Oregon Country and report as to the advisability of 
sending missionaries to that far-off land. As the Lees had 
gone out in the train of Wyeth on his second expedition, so 
Parker and Whitman attached themselves to a party of 
the Rocky Mountain Fur Traders, led by Fontenelle. 
When they reached South Pass in August, and learned that 



THE MLSSIONS 107 

they were really crossing the Rocky Mountaias, Parker was 
prompted to write: ''There would be no difficulty in con- 
stnicting a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific."* 
Doubtless, the good old man found reason to revise his 
statement when he got farther west among the precipitoas 
slopes of the Blue Mountains and the chasras of the Snake 
River. This idea of a transcontinental line was first sug- 
gested by Robert Mills in 1819, thirteen years after Le^vis 
and Clark had returned from their expedition.^ 

The missionaries preached to a motley assemblage of 
mountain men and Indians at the Green River rendezwjus 
in the summer of 1835. So sincere seemed the interest of. 
the Indians assembled here, and so evident was their need of 
help and guidance that it was resolved that one of the mis- 
sionaries should return from this point and obtain the help 
necessary to found a mission, while the other went on and 
determined upon a desirable location. The old man, Parker, 
went on into the wilderness. The young man, Whitman, 
returned to civilization, but not until he had vindicated his 
right to the title of doctor by removing from the back of 
Jim Bridger an arrowhead that had been embedded in his 
flesh for three years. Taking two young Xez Perce Indians 
as "specimens" the Doctor went back with the wagons that 
had come to the rendezvous 'v^ith suppHes from St. Louis 
and were now returning laden with fur; while Parker, with 
the able guidance of Jim Bridger himself, went on to the land 
of the Xez Perces, rambled about over their beautiful hunt- 
ing-grounds, visited forts Walla Walla and Vancouver, and 
finally took ship for Boston by way of Honolulu. 

Dr. Whitman returned in the spring of 1836, accompanied 
by his bride and by Mr. and !Mrs. H. H. Spalding, another 

^ Of all purJif^, t?irough the Continental Di\'ide, South Pass is the od1\' 
one through which no railroad j'et runs. 

2 Wheeler, Tlie Trail of Lewis and Clark. 0. P. Putnam's Sons. 



108 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



recently married couple. A strange bridal tour it must have 
been for these two young women, the most remarkable one on 
record. With a party of fur traders as escort, they j ourneyed 
in rude wagons, the first wheeled vehicles to traverse the entire 
Oregon Trail, across the interminable leagues of sun-parched 
plains, through tribe after tribe of savage redmen, who 
crowded about in awe to see these wonderfully fair creatures 




FORT WALLA WALLA 

the first white women they had ever seen; forded the Platte, 
the Sweetwater, the Green, and many lesser streams; 
scrambled through mountain passes; and finally settled 
down to their life work amid the rudest surroundings, the 
Whitmans at Waiilatpu, not far from the present town of 
Walla Walla, the Spaldings about one hundred twenty 
miles up the Clearwater, east of the present town of Lewiston, 
Idaho, at a place called Lapawi. With rude log buildings 
hastily constructed to shelter them and their stock, the 
two families settled down to instruct and civilize the Indians, 
their only neighbors, and to teach them the rudiments of 
agriculture so that they might have some means of sub- 
sistence more certain than the precarious pursuit of wild 



THE MISSIONS 109 

game. They hoped also that as the Indians became farmers 
they would become attached to the plat of land that fur- 
nished them a living, and would gradually give up the roving 
life that kept them always unsettled and savage. 

When Astoria was founded ten potatoes were planted. 
These produced one hundred ninety. The next year the 
crop increased to five bushels, which yielded, in 1813", fifty 
bushels. When Mr. Parker came out in 1835 he brought 
with him a quart of seed wheat. This was even more 
prolific, for eleven years after its first planting it yielded a 
crop of twenty thousand thirty bushels. This was the 
striking result of the lessons in agriculture given by Whitman 
and Spalding. Under their earnest direction the object- 
lesson struck deep into the minds of the Indians, and many a 
brave of the Nez Perces and Cayuses looked with pride 
upon his little farm, though it must be admitted that he 
left most of the labor of cultivating it to his squaw. Yet 
with all of this it must be remembered that the Hudson's 
Bay people living at Vancouver had been successful to some 
extent in raising crops before the coming of the missionaries. 

But the Hudson's Bay Company had aims exactly opposed 
to those of the missionaries. If the Indians turned to farm- 
ing they would no longer bring rich store of furs to the 
Hudson's Bay posts to trade. Indeed, the American invasion 
threatened the very life of the Hudson's Bay business. 
Dr. Whitman, in his headstrong way, had insisted upon 
taking his wagon clear through to Oregon in spite of all the 
efforts of the Hudson's Bay factors to dissuade him. 
Never before had a wagon gone west of Fort Hall, and the 
authorities at that post pointed out that it would be sheer 
madness to make the attempt. But Whitman not only 
made the attempt, he succeeded. Where his wagon had 
gone others could follow, and the vision of long trains of 
American wagons loaded with American settlers became a 



no THE PATHBREAKERS 

nightmare to the Hudson's Bay officials. They caused 
magazine articles to be circulated in the East warning the 
people that Oregon was a desolate region wholly unfit for 
farming, or, as Daniel Webster put it, ''Fit only for the 
prairie-dog and the Indian." The mongrel followers of the 
Hudson's Bay trade worked upon the suspicious minds of 
the Indians, arousing them to hostility against the whites, 
and even prejudicing them against the missionaries. At 
the same time the great monopoly was striving hard to get 
English settlers to come, preferring, if the country must be 
settled, to see it done by the British. But while we recognize 
all this, we must also remember that Dr. John McLoughlin, 
head of the Hudson's Bay interests in all that country, was 
a just and generous man, who never took a petty advantage 
and never failed to relieve the necessities of the American 
emigrants who came to his post at Fort Vancouver, destitute 
and miserable after their weary journey. He was kind to 
the Lees, to Parker, to Whitman himself. Indeed, but for 
him and his able lieutenants the massacre that put an end 
to Whitman's life and work would have been much more 
dreadful than it was. 

While the few who had gone to Oregon were laboring 
manfully to prepare for future immigration, men of foresight 
in the East were working just as earnestly to arouse the 
public to a sense of the value of that great region. Most 
notable of these was Hall J. Kelley, a Boston schoolmaster, 
who had become inflamed with the idea that Americans 
would commit a crime against posterity should they let 
this region pass into British hands. With voice and pen 
he poured forth argument and appeal that his countrymen 
awake before the English had wrested Oregon from America 
forever. He even made a voyage to the far western coast, 
and came back more enthusiastic than ever. You see it 
was wholly a question as to who should first settle the 



THE MISSIONS 



111 



country. In 1818 our government and England had made 
a treaty, agreeing that the citizens of both countries should 
be free to settle there. This was renewed in 1828. The 
Webster- Ashburton Treaty of 1842 settled the northeastern 
boundary between Maine and Canada, but left the question of 
the northwestern boundary still unsettled. Indeed, Webster 




^U 






mm^ 



' m- 



,.J^. 






-J%s- 



THE OREGON TRAIL (Western Wyoming) 
Made deeper and wider by Whitman's Caravan. 

seems not to have been awake to the importance of this 
great region, and there is every reason to fear that he would 
have accepted the Columbia River as a boundary had it not 
been for the opposition of able men like Senators Benton and 
Linn of Missouri, and the clamor of Hall J. Kelley and his 
followers. 

The settlers in Oregon gradually became dissatisfied with 
the conditions surrounding them, and felt that our govern- 



112 THE PATHBREAKERS 

merit, absorbed in other perplexing affairs of State, had 
forgotten the people who had gone west to help develop the 
territory along the western coast. More settlers were 
needed. The little farms were so far apart that the mission- 
aries became lonesome and keenly felt their isolation and 
experienced a desire for additional people of their kind. The 
settlers were disappointed that no agreement had been 
arrived at by our country and England relative to the boun- 
dary lines. The only laws that governed the people were 
those put in force by the Hudson's Bay Company. Our 
laws did not extend out into that territory, and the Americans 
objected to the indifference of our government. Several 
attempts had been made to establish some sort of a govern- 
ment of their own but without success until 1843, when a 
provisional ''compact" government was agreed to until 
such time as the United States should have authority over 
them. To this ''compact," not unlike the "Mayflower 
Compact," we must accord the honor of being the first 
American government on the Pacific. 

The missions started by Dr. Whitman and his associates 
on the upper Columbia had not met with the success that 
they deserved, and his Board of Missions did not feel that 
the results of the work being done in the ten itory warranted 
the continuance of the mission. Whitman was anxious to 
appear in person before this Board, and to urge it not to 
abandon the work. This act of the home Board, and the 
desire to help the Oregon people determined the missionary 
to go east at once. Snow was ill the mountains and it 
would be a trip full of danger, but he felt that he must start 
immediately and do what was in his power for the cause he 
represented and the settlers in the Oregon country. 

The Indians had by this time become very hostile along 
the Oregon Trail. They were up in arms because they thought 
that the palefaces were coming in too great numbers and 



THE MISSIONS 113 

would gradually push the red man out of his hunting-grounds. 
As in the days of Lewis and Clark and the trappers, the Black- 
feet and Sioux were the most dreaded. After thinking it 
over, Whitman determined to go by a southern route and 
thus avoid them. 

When Whitman started from Walla Walla on the third of 
October, 1842, he took with him on his journey Amos Love- 
joy, a recent immigrant to Oregon. These two men made 
the long and dangerous trip on horseback, in the middle of 
winter, through a country entirely new to them and beset 
with Indians. The first part of the journey was made over 
the Oregon Trail to Fort Hall; from there they pushed south, 
crossed the Colorado Mountains, forded the Green River, 
breaking their way through ice, crossed the mountain passes 
over ten thousand feet high where snow lay piled so deep 
that they had to break a way for the horses, camped out 
night after night in imminent danger of freezing, eating what 
little they could find, but always forging ahead until they 
reached Taos, the home of Kit Carson. At Bent's Fort 
Love joy had to abandon the trip, and from this point Whit- 
man made the rest of the journey to the Missouri without 
guide or companion. By the third of March, 1843, he reached 
Washington, after having experienced every hardship imagin- 
able through five months of continuous riding. 

A strange and interesting appearance this missionary 
must have made upon the streets of Washington with his 
long hair, tanned skin, fur hat, buckskin trousers, moccasins, 
and leather coat, a typical backwoodsman. In his interview 
with the Secretary of War he learned that a treaty had just 
been signed by Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton, envoy 
from England, but that the Oregon question was not men- 
tioned, and that the status of that territory was still an un- 
settled matter between the United States and Great Britain. 

Most of the information, which the statesmen at Washing- 



THE MISSIONS 115 

ton had received about that country of Oregon was from 
British sources, and naturally was not of a nature to inspire 
the authorities at Washington with a great desire to possess 
the territory. It was left to Whitman to present the facts 
as they appeared to him, setting forth the advantages of 
possessing the wonderful piece of agricultural home-making 
country on the Pacific coast. He advised the building of a 
series of forts along the Oregon Trail as a protection from the 
Indians, and farming stations to furnish supplies to the emi- 
grants. He advised, in addition, that every encouragement 
be given to those seeking homes in the West. 

From Washington Whitman went to Boston to endeavor 
to convince his Board of the necessity of continuing the 
missions in the Oregon country. When a complete explana- 
tion was given of the condition of the missions as they existed 
in Oregon, the authorities finally decided to continue the 
missions in that part of the country. 

By June 1, 1843, Whitman was at Independence, ready 
to start once more for the West. At this point he identified 
himself with a colony, headed by Captain Peter H. Burnett, 
who afterwards became governor of California, bound for 
Oregon. This, the largest party that had gone west thus 
far, was made up of the best type of American citizens, — men, 
women, and children. They had two hundred wagons and 
over one thousand head of cattle. They went determined 
to stay, and took with them farm implements, seed grain, 
and many cherished pieces of furniture. The grain and tools 
they retained to the end ; but little by little the furniture was 
burned or thrown down by the road as it became clear that 
they must lighten the load if they hoped to cover the many 
miles of rugged road that lay between them and Oregon. 
Whitman was ever present to hearten them in their de- 
spondency, to cheer them on to greater efforts, to remind 
them of the magnitude of their destiny. He it was that 



116 THE PATHBREAKERS 

persuaded them to cling to their wagons in spite of all diffi- 
culties, and that showed them how to take the wagons through 
all the way to Oregon. Now, the Oregon Trail was really a 
road. Never after this migration could it be claimed that 
a wagon road to Oregon was impracticable. In the years 
immediately succeeding still greater companies, all with 
wagons and cattle, went over the road until the old trail 
became worn so deep and wide that the Indians looking at 
it would cover their mouths with their hands in awe, calhng 
it ''The Great Medicine Road of the Whites," and declaring 
that the rest of the country must be left empty, so many 
people had gone to Oregon. 

The party reached Oregon in October, 1843, and at once 
commenced to build their houses. In the spring they plowed 
their ground and planted their seed. The soil was rich, the 
sun was bright, and plenty of rain came to the valley of the 
Willamette, so that from the first it became a land of plenty. 

Like many another brave soul that has labored in a great 
cause, Dr. Whitman did not live to know of the final triumph. 
The Indians killed him and his wife in November, 1847, and, 
though the treaty settling the boundary between Canada 
and the Oregon country at the 49th parallel had been signed 
the preceding June, so slow was the transit of news in those 
days that the glad tidings had not yet penetrated to the 
mountain mission where the Whitmans worked so earnestly 
to better the condition of those who were even then plotting 
their destruction. Mrs. Whitman taught the school, in 
which she had at one time five hundred Indian boys and 
men, nursed the sick, and instructed the mothers and daugh- 
ters in the rudiments of domestic economy. The doctor 
labored to keep alive the interest in agriculture, preached 
the lessons of Christianity, and healed the sick. But, alas! 
he could not heal all the sick. Measles came, introduced 
possibly by the family of some immigrant, and, although the 



THE MISSIONS 



117 



good doctor succeeded in curing the whites he could not cure 
the Indians. There were two reasons for this: first, this disease 
was much more fatal with Indians than with whites; then 
again, the natives refused to carry out the instructions of the 
doctor, for when the disease was at its height the fever- 
parched Indians plunged 
into the river to cool off. 
There could be but one 
result — death. But the 
red men could make no 
allowances. To their sus- 
picious minds, inflamed 
by renegade characters 
among the half-breeds, 
Dr. Whitman was in 
league with the whites to 
kill them and take their 
lands. Further, the 
Great Spirit was angry 
because they had taken 
another religion than 
that of their fathers. So 
they killed Whitman and 
his wife and twelve im- 
migrants in a massacre 
that lasted for eight days. The Spaldings at their mission 
of Lapawi were warned in time to escape to the shelter 
of the nearest Hudson's Bay post. Peter Skeene Ogden, 
the noted Hudson's Bay partisan after whom Ogden's 
Hole in Utah was named, was sent to quiet the Indians and 
to rescue the forty white people who had been captured. It 
has been said that Ogden was the only person who could have 
accompHshed such a daring deed. This, for a time, was the 
end of the Protestant missions in the eastern part of the 




PETER ski:ene ogden 



118 THE PATHBREAKERS 

Oregon country. Eventually Whitman College arose from 
the ashes of the Whitman mission. 

The English had not succeeded in civilizing and settling 
Oregon. America succeeded where England failed, because 
she brought to that country the family, the home, while the 
English came for adventure and for gain with traps, snares, 
and guns. Seed wheat, corn, potatoes, and fruit trees 
proved the better materials for colonization. The trapper 
was satisfied with newspapers coming by the dog-train route, 
six months old, but the settler had his printing-press with 
him. One brought into that country all he had, the other 
took out of it all he could get. The American's wagons were 
loaded when they entered Oregon, the English left that coun- 
try each year with boats packed to their full capacity; one 
was continuously bringing in, the other constantly taking 
out; small wonder that one succeeded where the other failed. 



4. FATHER DE SMET 

When the chiefs of the Nez Perce and the Flathead tribes 
visited Captain Clark in the autumn of 1832, they really 
asked for Catholic missionaries, desiring the priest of "the 
black robe" to come to their country. The reason for this 
was that some of the Indians of the Pacific waterways had 
been instructed in the Catholic religion by a few Christian 
Iroquois from Canada, who were in the service of the fur 
traders. 

It was to these Indians that Father Jean Pierre De Smet 
was sent to carry the ''White Man's Book." De Smet was 
a Belgian by birth, but had come to the United States when 
yet a boy. He was at his mission at Council Bluffs, working 
among the Potawatomi Indians, when the delegation of 
Flathead Indians passed on their way to St. Louis. This 
visit inspired De Smet with such fervor that he asked for 



THE MISSIONS 



119 



permission to go to the Rocky Mountains and investigate 
the condition of the Indians, with the possibiHty of estab- 
lishing a mission among them. 

In 1840 the good Father left Westport with a party of 
American Fur Company men. These men were on their 
way to the mountains where the Flatheads made their 
home. In this party 
were some thirty trap- 
pers, and an Indian 
named Ignace, who was 
to act as guide for De 
Smet to the home of the 
tribe. Pierre, another 
Indian, had gone ahead 
several months before 
to tell his people that 
the ''Black Robe "would 
be at Green River in the 
spring. 

This caravan also went 
over the Oregon Trail to 
the Green River rendez- 
vous. Just before its 
arrival De Smet was met 
by ten of the most 
trusted warriors, who had been selected by the chief of the 
Flatheads. For a few days De Smet spent his time among 
the trappers and traders, and on the first Sunday in this 
region, the fifth of July, 1840, the Father celebrated Mass 
before the Indians, white men, traders, trappers, and hunt- 
ers, a mixed, but a most attentive, congregation. 

The altar for the celebration was placed on an elevation, 
and decorated with boughs from the cottonwood trees and 
fresh wild flowers of the plains. This sacred spot was known 




De SmeVs Travels 

Courteny of Lathrop C. Harper 

FATHER DE SMET. TAKEN IN HIS 
YOUTH 



120 THE PATHBREAKERS 

after this event as ''la prairie de la Messe," the prairie of 
the Mass, so named by the Canadians of the camp. The 
devoted missionary first spoke in English, then French, and 
then, through an interpreter, to the Flatheads and Snake 
Indians, and the Canadians sang their hymns in French and 
Latin, the Indians joining in with their native tongues. 

From Green River De Smet went to Pierre's Hole, where 
he found sixteen hundred Indians who had come through to 
meet him, some of them having journeyed eight hundred 
miles. Among these natives were Flatheads, Nez Perces, 
Pend d'Oreilles, and Kalispels. De Smet's entrance into the 
rendezvous was a triumphal march and his reception was 
royal. The chief, Tiohzhilzay (Big Face), ran to meet the 
missionary, followed by the men, women, and children, all 
eager to shake hands with the ''Black Robe." When he 
met De Smet he exclaimed: "Black Robe, my heart was very 
glad when I learned who you were. Never has my lodge 
seen a greater day. As soon as I received the news of your 
coming, I had my big kettle filled to give you a feast in 
the midst of my warriors. Be welcome. I have had my 
best three dogs killed in your honor; they were very fat." 
The missionary testifies that the flesh of the wild dog was 
very delicate and extremely good, resembling the meat of a 
young pig. 

The Father immediately began his work with the members 
of the tribes who assembled that evening in numbers amount- 
ing to two thousand. De Smet wept with j oy that first night 
at the progress he had made among the natives, and for the 
opportunity that had been given to him to bring the tidings 
of salvation to the natives of the mountains and plains. 

After spending two months with the Flatheads, going 
with them across the Divide, camping with them at the 
Three Forks, where thirty-four years before Lewis and Clark 
had camped, De Smet left his neophytes, and, accompanied 



THE MISSIONS 



121 



by a select band of Indians to escort him past the hostile 
Blackfeet, pushed toward the northeast. From Fort Union 
De Smet departed for St. Louis, where he arrived December 
31st, having made the entire journey in nine months. 

Early the next spring, 1841, Father De Smet with two 
other priests and three laymen again returned to the moun- 




Northern Pacific Railway 

INTERIOR OF SAINT MARY'S MISSION. USED IN THE WORK OF 
FATHERS DE SMET AND RAVALLI. (Stevensville, Montana) 

tains, where at South Pass the little band was met by ten 
lodges of the faithful Flatheads. After doing some mis- 
sionary work in the southwestern part of Wyoming, De Smet 
and his men went to Fort Hall, where the British factor 
greeted the travelers with abounding hospitality. From here 
they were escorted by the Indians to what afterwards be- 
came Fort Owen in Montana, where they founded the 
mission of St. Mary's. From St. Mary's De Smet WTut on a 
long journey to Fort Vancouver, where Dr. McLoughlin 
met him with a most cordial greeting. It is interesting to 



122 THE PATHBREAKERS 

note that while in this valley he also called on Dr. Whitman, 
presenting him with a Bible which is now preserved by the 
Oregon Historical Society. 

Upon De Smet's return to St. Mary's he became so im- 
pressed with the prospect ''for a harvest of souls" that he 
determined to go to Europe and obtain financial aid and 
additional assistants for his work. Returning by the way 
of the Yellowstone and the Missouri, he arrived again in 
St. Louis the last of October, 1842. 

During Father De Smet's visit to Europe he engaged a 
number of Sisters of Notre Dame to come to America and 
help him build a convent and school in the Willamette 
Valley. With him also were one Belgian and three Italian 
priests. By the way of Cape Horn they all journeyed to the 
northwest coast, landing there in July, 1844. 

After establishing the nuns in a convent, De Smet went 
over the mountains to his beloved Flatheads, where he per- 
formed prodigious labors. In addition to this tribe he was 
also determined to Christianize the dreaded Blackfeet, who 
were constantly making war upon his peaceful Indians. In 
this work with these Indians De Smet did not experience 
much success until the year 1846, when, on his way to St. 
Louis to obtain permission and aid to enlarge his missions, 
he visited the Blackfeet, spending three weeks with them. 
These fighting Blackfeet rather questioned the invasion of 
their territory by this strange, fearless white man with cloth 
of black and cross of gold. But his peaceful face and gentle 
manners were very reassuring. De Smet tells how the great- 
est chief hesitated about receiving him, when finally he ex- 
tended his hand and invited the missionary to sit down on a 
strong and beautiful buffalo skin. Thinking that the pipe 
of peace was to be smoked from this robe, the Father took a 
seat in the center of it, when to his sudden surprise twelve 
of the chiefs took hold of the robe, and with De Smet in the 



THE MISSIONS 



123 



middle carried robe and contents to a place some distance 
away where a successful council was held. This visit re- 
sulted in establishing peace between the Flathead chiefs 
who were with De Smet and the warring Blackfeet. 

On his way down the Missouri De Smet met Brigham 
Young and the Mormons on their way to the West and the 




Dc S/ii'I's Tfiiiil-^. L'uurttsy of Latfirop C. Harper 

THE BLACKFEET SIOUX WELC0:\IING FATHER DE SMET 

land of promise. Of these people De Smet said: ''They will 
one day probably form a prominent part of the history of 
the Far West." The missionary was a great prophet as 
well as great priest. 

This strenuous minister w^as not permitted to return and 
work among his ''dear Flatheads," as his church had other 
work for him to do in St. Louis. However, he occasionally 
made a visit for supervision of the work he had commenced, 
and which he had left other "Black Robes" to complete. 

So great was De Smet's influence with these natives that 



124 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



our govermp.ent called him three times to help in pacifying 
them and assist in important negotiations. When the 
Indians with whom De Smet had worked grew ugly and out 
of humor, they would be immediately restored to order when 
a ''Black Robe" appeared in their midst. 




Northern Pacific Railway 

OLD CHURCH BUILDING AT ST. IGNATIUS, INDIAN MISSION, 
MONTANA, ON FLATHEAD RESERVATION 

One story is told of Father De Smet which will illustrate 
his fearlessness, and, as a result of this, the faith which the 
natives had in the God-fearing missionary. The Crow 
Indians at first received De Smet with the awe and venera- 
tion that other tribes had given him; but after a time they 
became accustomed to seeing the black robe and the large 
gold cross, that he always wore on his breast, and the time 
came when they were skeptical of the powers which some 
Indians believed had been given him by the ''Great Spirit." 
Finally, to test his spiritual power, one of the chiefs said 
that if De Smet would go and put his hand on the head of an 



THE MISSIONS 



125 



old wild buffalo bull that was grazing on the plains the 
tribe would beheve that he was a representative of this 
'' Great Spirit " ; if he should be killed by the beast they would 
know he was an imposter. This was not during the day of 
miracles, yet De Smet knew he must make an attempt to 




SAINT PETER'S MISSION, AN OLD INDIAN MISSION NEAR GREAT 
FALLS, MONTANA 

justify his caUing. The grazing animal did not notice De 
Smet's approach until the two were only a few yards apart, 
when the big creature raised his head and looked at the black 
gown and the ghttering gold cross, but he did not move. 
Going nearer and nearer slowly and quietly, De Smet finally 
placed his hand on the buffalo's head. When the priest 
walked back to the tribe he was received with additional 
awe and reverence as one coming from the ''Great Spirit. '* 
This deed was heralded not only throughout the Crow tribe, 
but to all of the Northwest, where De Smet's power was 
believed to be God-given. 



126 THE PATHBREAKERS 

As late as 1868 Father De Smet visited the mountain re- 
gion, going to Cheyenne, Wyoming. While he was there he 
told the people who conversed with him of the wonderful 
amount of gold that was to be found in the Rockies, and of 
the great future there was for the people who were to live 
in that region. All who knew Father De Smet spoke of him 
in the highest terms, regretting that he gave up the mission- 
ary work in which he had done much to bring civihzation to 
the Northwest. 

5. THE MORMONS IN UTAH 

The other religious movements toward the West were made 
in the hope and belief that the Indians might be Christianized; 
the religious organization known as The Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter-Day Saints came to the great West in order 
to establish a new home for the followers of its faith. The 
desire for freedom in thought and freedom in worship made 
this entire sect abandon their homes east of the Mississippi, 
and move out into the valley of the great inland sea. 

The Mormons, as the Latter-Day Saints are called, were 
organized in the state of New York in 1830 by Joseph Smith, 
thence they moved to Ohio, and soon to Missouri. From this 
state they were driven to Illinois, and upon the recurrence of 
mob violence here, in which their prophet Joseph Smith was 
killed, they decided to cast their lot in the wilderness, away 
from conflicting authority, where they might establish a 
community of their own. 

In 1847 the great exodus to the West was made under the 
guidance of Brigham Young, the president of the Mormon 
church and successor of Joseph Smith. The first stage of 
the journey was made in 1846 through Iowa. When the 
banks of the Missouri were reached the exiles were overtaken 
by an officer of the United States government who demanded 
that five hundred of their able-bodied men should enlist in 



THE MISSIONS 



127 



the army to serve in the Mexican war. The men responded 
quickly, but it took from the band its best and strongest 
men, leaving behind the disabled ones, who with helpless 
women and children were alone in an unknown country, open 
to the attack of hostile Indians. It was for this reason that 
the expedition did not go farther West until the next spring. 




LION HOUSE AND BEEHIVE HOUSE, RESIDENCES OF BRIGHAM 
YOUNG, SALT LAKE CITY 

The high wall is now replaced by an iron fence. 

These Mormons who gave their services to the cause of the 
war became known as the Mormon Battalion, and went first 
as far south as Santa Fe. Here a large number of the men 
became too ill to render service in the army and were sent to 
Pueblo for rest and treatment; from here they ultimately 
made their way to the Great Salt Lake Basin. The rest of 
the battalion went to San Diego under the command of 
Brigadier-General Cooke, and some of these men also returned 
to Salt Lake by the way of the California trail, while a num- 
ber of them stayed in California and one of their number is 
said to have been the first man to discover gold there. 



128 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



When the warm days in April came, in 1847, the emigrant 
band that had camped on the banks of the Missouri started 
on the journey for their new home in the Rocky Mountains, — 
the exact location of which no one knew. 

Brigham Young had read very carefully the reports that 




IN ECHO CANON, UTAH 

Fremont had made about his explorations in the West; he 
had talked with Father De Smet about agricultural lands 
toward the Pacific; and had interviewed every possible person 
who had been in the wilderness. That there was a home 
for him and his people somewhere toward the setting sun no 
one of the band doubted. 

The Mormon trail was from Council Bluffs to the Platte, 
along the north side of the Platte to Fort Laramie, thence 
to Ft. Bridger over the Oregon Trail, and southwest to 
Great Salt Lake. As other Mormons were to follow this 



THE MISSIONS 129 

first band, many devices were adopted to guide succeeding 
parties and to give them news of the pioneers. Letters were 
stuck in the skulls of buffalo found on the prairies, and for 
guideposts they painted on the space between the horns of the 
skulls the date of their arrival at that spot. 

The Oregon Trail was now growing wider, for the Mormons 
averaged only thirteen miles a day in order to give their 
cattle plenty of time to graze on each side of the beaten 
trail. Broad and deep was this highway, and broader and 
deeper did it become, until it became a wide belt of furrows. 
Rain, snow, wind, and time have not been able unto this day 
to obliterate the tracks of the Indian, trapper, trader, ex- 
plorer, missionary, settler, soldier, freighter, stage-driver, 
and express-rider. Just before the Mormons reached Salt 
Lake Valley, Bridger met them and told Brigham Young all 
he knew about that region. Bridger laughed at the idea that 
any crops could grow in that desert and swore that he would 
give one hundred dollars for the first ear of corn that was 
raised there. The quiet answer was: ''Wait a little and we 
will show you." And the world has been shown what a 
resolute, determined, and able-bodied set of men, led by an 
able leader, may accomplish. 

On July 24, 1847, the little caravan trailed down into 
the ''land of promise." From the sagebrush desert found 
there has evolved a land that from the tops of the hills looks 
like a checkerboard, with every square a beautiful farm or 
orchard. The desert, by the means of irrigating ditches, 
was turned into one grand garden where many blades of 
grass grow where none grew before. 

After the first detachment of Mormons reached the valley 
others came, and then others year after year, until in all 
parts of LHah were rich communities. Brigham Young did 
not permit all of his followers to huddle in the valley of the 
Great Salt Lake, but sent small communities here and there 



THE MISSIONS 



131 



to make settlements in the wilderness. So we find Logan in 
the rich Cache Valley where the old trappers used to hold 
their rendezvous, and Ogden in Ogden's Hole, named by the 
trappers after old Peter Ogden, a trapper for the Hudson's 
Bay Company. 
In the valley of 
Utah Lake, to 
the south, is 
Provo, perpetu- 
ating the name 
of Etienne Pro- 
vost, the parti- 
san of Ashley, 
the fur man. 

To this day 
the 24th of July 
is celebrated 
throughout Utah 
with speeches, 
music, picnics, 
races, and pro- 
cessions; for it 
was on this day 
in 1847 that 
Brigham Young 
and his band of one hundred forty-three men, women, and 
children passed through Emigration Canon and went down 
into the great valley. And on this July day each year. 
Pioneer Day, the people of Utah rig up queer old wagons 
with tattered, weather-beaten covers, drawn by a cow and a 
horse, escorted by roughly dressed men, and march in 
procession with old women and young children, dogs, cows, 
and mules, a ragged lot, in commemoration of the great 
march of their early pioneers. 




MONUMENT TO BRIGHAM YOUNG AND THE 
PIONEERS, SALT LAKE CITY 



132 THE PATHBREAKERS 

REFERENCES 

Lummis. The Spanish Pioneers. 
Royce. History of California. 
Dellenbaugh. Breaking the Wilderness. 

Thwaites. Early Western Travels, Wyeth, Townsend and De 
Smet Letters. 

Dye. McLoughlin and Old Oregon. 

Irving. Captain Bonneville. 

Eells. Marcus Whitman. 

Dye. McDonald of Oregon. 

Barrow. History of Oregon. 

Schafer. History of the Pacific Northwest. 

Lyman. The Columbia River. 

Bancroft. History of Utah. 

Inman. The Great Salt Lake Trail. 

Stansbury. Explorations. 

Coutant. History of Wyoming. 

Whitney. History of Utah. 

Meany. History of the State of Washington. 

Paxson. The Last of the American Frontier. 



CHAPTER Y 

FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 

1. The Wind River Mountain 3. The Mexican War, 1845- 

Exploration, 1842-43 47 

2. Great Salt Lake, Colum- 4. The First Private Venture, 

BiA River and Califor- 1848-49 

nia, 1843-44 5. The Last Expedition, 1853-54 

1. THE WIND RIVER MOUNTAIN EXPLORATION, 1842-43 

John Charles Fremont made five journeys of western 
exploration; three of these were under the direction and pay 
of the United States government; two of them were private 
ventures; all of them were made between the years of 1842 
and 1854. 

It might be profitable to go back a few years and learn 
for what reasons Fremont made these explorations, and 
why he was selected to make them. 

There lived in St. Louis at this time Thomas H. Benton, 
United States Senator for thirty years, having been the first 
senator to be sent from the then new state of Missouri, in 1821 . 
Most naturally the development of the new West became 
of vital importance to Benton, and it was to him that the 
authorities at Washington turned for the most accurate 
information of the wilderness. Captain WiUiam Clark was 
connected by marriage with the family of Benton, and a 
natural intimacy existed between these two men, — explorer 
and statesman. 

Captain Clark had continued in his office of superintendent 
of all of the Western Indians ever since his return from 
the West in 1806. His influence was necessarily very power- 

133 



134 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



ful with the Indians as well as with the authorities at 
Washington, particularly the Indian Bureau and the 
Department of the Interior. As a matter of fact, Clark 

made most of the 
treaties with the 
Indians during his 
term of office. 

The constant com- 
panionship with this 
explorer inspired 
Senator Benton with 
the idea of learning 
accurately through 
government explora- 
tions the geography 
and topography of 
this vast region, that 
treaties might be 
made, railroad proj- 
ects acted upon, and 
settlement directed 
more wisely than 
could be the case 
with the hearsay 
information then 
available. Other 
people were taken 
into this family council. The fur traders came, smarting 
from the arrogance of the Hudson's Bay Company. Chief 
among these fur men were the Chouteaus, an old French 
family who had carried on their fur trade for sixty years. 
Then there were the picturesque Mexican merchants; the 
military men from the frontier, fresh from their skirmishes 
with the Indians; the ''Black Robes," who added their bits 




JOHN CHARLES FREMONT 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 135 

of information of the mountains and the prairies; the French 
voyageurs; and lastly, the wealthy merchants from Spain, 
France, and America who were interested in their trade that 
stretched across Mexico to the "Sea of Cortez," as the Gulf 
of California was then called. All of these men brought 
their different information and expressed their views as to 
the best course to pursue to better conditions in the great 
West. Benton became absorbed in the idea of obtaining 
information from an official source that might be published 
by the government and distributed among the people. 
Believing in this method of spreading knowledge about the 
new West, Benton carried his plans to Washington, where 
he had very great influence. 

Young Fremont had been in the service of the government 
for some time as a member of the Topographical Corps, 
which had to make surveys, plans and estimates for pro- 
posed routes for canals and roads to be used for commercial 
and mihtary purposes. In 1840 he came to St. Louis from 
one of his northwest geological surveys, and while there met 
Senator Benton. He also met Jessie Benton, daughter of the 
Senator, who became Mrs. Fremont in 1841 while Fremont 
was a lieutenant in the United States army. In the following 
May this army officer, under the directions and instructions 
of our government, left St. Louis to explore the country lying 
between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, going by 
way of the Kansas and Platte rivers. 

By steamboat Fremont went from St. Louis as far as the 
mouth of the Kansas, where his final preparations were made 
at the trading-post of Chouteau about ten miles up the 
river from " Kansas Landing.'^ In the caravan were twenty- 
one enlisted men, a topographical engineer, Charles Preuss, 
a hunter, Lucien Maxwell, and a guide. Kit Carson. In 
addition to this escort there were Henry Benton, a young 
man of nineteen years, son of the Senator, and Brant, a boy 



136 THE PATHBREAKERS 

twelve years old, who was sent on the expedition ''for the 
development of mind and body which such an expedition 
would give." 

Following on, and parallel to, the Santa Fe Trail for over 
one day, the expedition traveled to the northwest until the 
Platte was reached, where a majority of the men went 
directly to Fort Laramie by the way of the north branch, 
while Fremont went up the South Fork, entered Wyoming 
about thirty miles southeast of Cheyenne, and then pushed 
north until he came to the fort where the other division 
had pitched its tents. These men had overtaken Jim 
Bridger, Avho caused them much alarm by telhng them that 
the Sioux, who were on the warpath, had sworn to make 
war upon every living thing that might be found west of 
Red Buttes, a point on the proposed path of the explorers. 
The authorities at the fort also warned them of the 
dangerous mood of the Indians, and advised the explorer to 
wait until the warring spirit of the hostile tribes had been 
subdued. Even the chiefs. Otter Hat, Breaker of Arrows, 
Black Night, and Bull's Trail, all insisted that there was 
serious danger ahead for the explorers. 

Nevertheless, Fremont determined to push forward and 
meet the enemies if necessary. He left at the fort part of 
the baggage, field-notes, and records of observations, as well 
as young Benton and Brant, as it was thought that these 
boys were too young to encounter the expected dangers. 
Chronometers, thermometers, transits, and barometers were 
easily transported to South Pass, where more Indians were 
encountered, who urged the explorer to return to the fort for 
protection. 

After reaching the rift in the mountains, Fremont's chief 
purpose was to climb the highest peak that shone out in its 
white, glittering, silvery splendor to the northwest. As the 
party approached the mountains food became scarce, the 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 



137 



daily supply consisting of buffalo meat fried in tallow. 
For the last climb a few pounds of coffee and a small quantity 
of macaroni were carefully saved. 

Fifteen sore-footed mules and fourteen level-headed men 
made up the mountain party which traveled for two days 
toward the coveted peak. Here Fremont, with sextant, 
spyglass, compass, barometer, and two men, made the final 



i 




.*(? 


•■'^^K^'' ^^W' ^^1 


1 




■ J 'i 


^<^^^| 



FREMONT ADDRESSING THE INDIANS AT FORT LARAMIE 

cHmb on through deep defiles in the mountains, past steep, 
rocky and shppery places, where each side was a perpendicu- 
lar wall of granite three thousand feet above their heads. 
Finally they picketed the mules, determined to go the rest 
of the way on foot. The ascent was necessarily slow, as they 
now were so high that it was difficult to breathe, the violent 
exercise affecting the action of their hearts. 

Fremont now exchanged his heavy moccasins for ones with 
very thin soles, so that toes as well as fingers might assist in 
scaling the almost perpendicular rocks. Often both hands 
and feet had to be put into crevices to get over the rocks, 
until with a final spring Fremont was on the top where there 
was a sloping rock about three feet wide. 




^ Y 

§ o 

I o 

Pi ' 

o ^ 

Oh ^ 

K I 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 139 

After Fremont let himself down from the rock, each of the 
men in turn climbed to the top on the ''unstable and 
precarious slab." The barometer, as it was placed in the 
snow at the summit, registered 13,570 feet higher than the 
waters of the ocean. Putting a ramrod in a crevice, the 
party then unfurled the Stars and Stripes. For a few 
moments the men sat in the awful silence and terrible 
solitude. The only sign of life they had seen that day had 
been a small sparrowlike bird, but ''while sitting on the 
rock a solitary bee came winging his flight from the eastern 
valley and lit on the knee of one of the men." The bee was 
captured and put between the leaves of a notebook with 
flowers that had been collected during the day. From this 
high point these indomitable explorers saw hundreds of 
small lakes, the source of the Green, which emptied into the 
Gulf of California, after changing its name to the Colorado; 
on another side was the Wind River valley, in which were the 
headwaters of the Yellowstone, a branch of the Missouri; 
to the north were the Tetons with their white caps, furnish- 
ing water to both the Missouri and the Columbia; and away 
to the southeast were the peaks whose snows supplied the 
water for the Platte. 

The descent did not take long. The mules were easily 
found and the camp was soon reached, where Kit Carson, 
who had been sent back with the extra men and mules not 
needed in the last climb to the mountain top, had everything 
comfortable for them. 

The peak discovered bears the name of the man who first 
climbed it, and is situated in a county of that name in the 
center of the State of Wyoming. 

Fremont's return journey was down the canons, where the 
river had w^orked its way through the mountains not far 
from Independence Rock. On this rock Fremont engraved 
with a hard piece of granite a "symbol of Christian faith." 



140 THE PATHBREAKERS 

On this "rock of the Far West" he traced many other names 
of those who had gone over the trail before him. When 
Fremont is called ''The Pathfinder" the historians make a 
mistake, for in truth he only found the path that had been 
made by others, Stuart, Ashley, Bonneville, Wyeth, Bridger, 
Carson, Lee, Whitman, and hundreds of pioneer path- 
breakers. Fremont, ''The Mapmaker, " would be a much 
more accurate title, and at the same time do more justice 
to the real trail-makers. 

After joining the rest of the party, the explorers returned 
to St. Louis by way of the Platte, arriving at their destination 
about the middle of October. The next day Fremont started 
for Washington, D. C, where he spent the winter preparing 
a report of the expedition. Preuss made the maps, represent- 
ing each day's journey, and our government finally issued 
the whole report. In order to further assist the travelers 
there was indicated on the maps where camps could be made 
and where grass and water might be found. 

Congress had many thousands of these reports printed and 
distributed. The greatest interest was aroused not by this re- 
port alone but by the subsequent reports by Fremont as well, 
all of which were used as handbooks and guides by western 
travelers. All who had their eyes turned westward — the 
Oregon enthusiasts, and the thousands they were inciting 
to move, the Mormons smarting under intolerable conditions 
— all read these reports. In the mind of the general pubUc 
Fremont was the one man that knew the West. It is no 
wonder that they named him "The Pathfinder." 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 141 



2. THE GREAT SALT LAKE, THE COLUMBIA AND 
CALIFORNIA EXPEDITION, 1843-44. 

Fremont's second expedition was organized by the 
government in order to examine the large territory south 
of the Columbia River Ijang between the Rockies and the 
Pacific. The agitation over the Oregon country was the 
direct reason for the second venture. Our government 
needed a road to the mouth of the Columbia River. 

Fremont met his men at the little town of Kansas, now 
Kansas City, and formed the caravan, on May 29, 1843, 
to go up the valley of the Kansas River to the headwaters 
of the Arkansas. To map out a new road to Oregon and 
California in a milder climate than the northern trails 
encountered was the first object of the expedition. 

Knowing that he was to be among Indians who were 
noted for treachery as well as bravery, Fremont apphed to 
Colonel Kearny for a brass twelve-pound homtzer, which 
was furnished from the arsenal at St. Louis. The party 
consisted of Creoles and Canadians, French and Americans, 
making in all thirtj^-nine men. 

Thomas Fitzpatrick, called ''Broken Hand," one of his 
hands having been shattered by a gunshot, was selected as 
the guide. Preuss, the topographer, was also a member of 
the expedition, as was Basil Lajeunesse, Fremont's favorite 
on this journey. 

When the party reached Pueblo, Kit Carson, who 
happened to be in that part of the country, was persuaded 
to join the expedition. From St. Vrain's Fort on the South 
Platte Fremont pushed westward up the Cache la Poudre, 
in Colorado, to the Big Laramie in Wyoming, by the way 
of the Medicine Bow Range, on to the North Platte, and 
northwest to the Sweetwater and to South Pass. This route 
from Fort St. Vrain (Colorado) into the Laramie plains 



142 



THE PATHBREAKERS 




KIT CARSON 



was practically a new one. Others had been over it, but 
the Indians were hostile along its hne and it was not used. 
It was over this path that Jacques La Ramie was traveling 
when he met his death. This trail as surveyed by Fremont 
was a practical one, over which in a few years hundreds of 
emigrants made their way to the West. Later on a stage 
line was established along this route. 

From South Pass the expedition went by the way of Green 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 



143 



River to the Bear, and down that stream to the Great Salt 
Lake, arriving there in September, 1843. The day after 
Fremont arrived at the lake he took his rubber boat, not 
unlike the one in which he went down the canon of the 
"Upper Great Platte,'' and with Carson, Preuss, and the 
Frenchmen set out to explore the lake. This trip Fremont 

said was * ' the first 

ever attempted by 
white men on the 
lake.'' Thfs, of 
course, was an 
error, as it is 
known that James 
Bridger and other 
trappers had been 
on the lake in 
their bull-skin 
boats many years 
before. 

Fremont and 
his men rowed in 
their leaking air- 
blown boat to an island, where they finally landed with much 
difficulty. This, now called Fremont Island, they named 
Disappointment Island, because they found no game or 
grass there. The boat was so unsafe that they attempted no 
further exploration of the lake. 

After the expedition left Great Salt Lake it went directly 
to Fort Hall, and the reunited party then traveled north and 
west until it reached The Dalles. Thus was completed the 
purpose of Fremont's second expedition, the uniting of his 
survey with that of Captain Wilkes, who was then surveying 
on the Columbia. The connecting of the two surveys made 
a continuous exploration from the Missouri to the Pacific. 




VIEW OF GREAT SALT LAKE FROM HAT 
ISLAND 



144 THE PATHBREAKERS 

From The Dalles Fremont took a boat trip to Vancouver, 
and was most courteously and hospitably received by Dr. 
McLoughlin, who always made a ''forcible and delightful 
impression on a traveler from the long wilderness." 

After Fremont's return to The Dalles, he started out to 
explore the Sierras and the western part of the Great Basin. 
No one of the expedition was familiar with the route, the 




A VIEW ON HAT ISLAND (VISITED BY FREMONT) IN GREAT SALT 

LAKE 

general supposition being that there was a great river, the 
Buenaventura, that flowed westward from the region of 
the lake through the Sierra Nevadas and into the Pacific. 
This supposition was a mistake, and Bonneville's expeditions 
had shown its fallacy, but Fremont seems not to have been 
familiar with Bonneville's work. 

The expedition traveled southward until it came to 
Tlamath (Klamath) Lake, from which three streams 
departed, one to the western ocean, one to the Columbia, 
and one south to California. After crossing the eastern 
slope of the Sierra Nevadas the party continued southward. 

About this time Indians of a new tribe made their appear- 
ance, and Fremont attempted to obtain from them a guide 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 



145 



to pilot the expedition over the mountains. For the services 
of the guide he offered many presents of bright-colored cloth 
and showy trinkets. The Indians conferred with each other, 
but pointed to the snow on the mountains and "drew their 
hands across their necks, and raised them above their heads 
to show the depth, signifying that it was impossible to get 
through." However, the Indians 
directed the expedition to go farther 
south, where a pass in the moun- 
tains would be found, after passing 
through which white men were to 
be found at the end of two days' 
travel. For this journey to the 
south a guide was finally furnished, 
after many gifts were presented to 
him. 

The guide was a young Indian 
dressed in most scanty clothing. 
He suffered intensely, for by the 
time the pass was reached it was 
snowing hard, and the weather had 
turned extremely cold. In order that the guide might not 
desert at this important time, Fremont had him march 
between two guards each armed with a rifle, for the poor 
fellow showed signs of panic as the snow came down on his 
naked skin. After a while this Indian was allowed to return 
to his people, and another was selected who was at once 
properly clothed in leggins, mackinaws, and a large blanket 
in addition to the bright red and blue cloth which had been 
presented to him for his services and which he wore as a 
decoration of honor. Now the dreaded time had come 
when the supplies of food had entirely given out and the 
camp dog had to supply the soup-pot; but it made a 
"strengthening meal." 




PELICANS ON HAT ISLAND, 
GREAT SALT LAKE 



146 THE PATHBREAKERS 

The snow was heavy and deep, and a road had to be broken 
through it over the Sierra. In order to do this sledges and 
snowshoes had to be made for the scouting party, which 
marched in single file to the top of the mountains. From 
here the men saw to the west, just outlined in the distance, 
a large valley without snow, and beyond this a low range 
of mountains which Carson recognized at once with delight 
as the mountains of the Pacific coast, — ''It is fifteen years 
since I saw it, but I am just as sure as if I had seen it yester- 
day." 

Between these mountains and the summit on which they 
stood was the Sacramento Valley. Back again the scouting 
party went to the camp, which was twenty miles distant, in 
order to bring the animals and the baggage over the moun- 
tains. This w^as a very difficult task, as the animals would 
break through the snow, and the sun shining on the snow 
made the men nearly blind. After pulling and tugging and 
cutting do^vn trees to put in the path for the animals to 
walk on, the summit was finally reached February 20, 1844, 
this time with all of the baggage and the animals. The sci- 
entific instruments showed that the exploration party was 
now one thousand miles from The Dalles, nine thousand feet 
higher than South Pass. 

On the day after Fremont had crossed the summit he 
observed a line of water to the w^est directing its course to a 
larger body of water. This told the explorers that they now 
were looking at the Sacramento Valley and the Bay of 
California. 

With Carson as a guide, Fremont pushed ahead to find 
Sutter's Fort,^ as provisions of all kinds had given out and 
the party was in a most deplorable condition. Mules and 
horses had to be killed for food, roots and wild onions, and 
even the leather of their saddles were eagerly chewed by 
iSee Chapter \T. 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 147 

the starving men. So extreme was the exposure and anxiety 
that two of the men became insane. Preuss lost the trail 
and had nothing with him with which to dig the wild onion 
except a pocket-knife; but he found some ants and some 
frogs, which kept him alive until he met some Indians who 
gave him plenty of roasted acorns and mussels, and directed 
him to the path of his comrades. 

When the explorers reached Fort Sutter they were met by 
the genial captain, who gave them a frank and cordial 
reception. In the valley of the Sacramento at the junction 
of the American and Sacramento rivers the party camped. 
The trip across the mountains had been especially hard on 
the animals. When Fremont started to cross the summit 
he had sixty-seven mules and horses; when he reached the 
valley there were but thirty-three of them, and these were 
in such forlorn condition that they had to be led. 

The explorers stayed in the valley only two weeks, during 
which time all preparations were made for the home-going 
trip. They collected horses, mules, and cattle; Sutter's mill 
went night and day to grind them flour, and toward the last 
of March the expedition started on its eastern trip, having 
left six of its company in California. 

The journey home was first toward the south, then around 
the southern extremity of the Sierra, and northward on the 
Old Spanish Trail to Utah Lake. Thus the explorers com- 
pleted a circuit of three thousand five hundred miles between 
September, 1843, and May of the next year. From Utah 
Lake, Fremont went east, explored the Colorado River, the 
headwaters of the Arkansas, North, Middle, and South 
Parks (Colorado), and went to Bent's Fort on the Santa Fe 
Trail, where the party was saluted with a display of the 
American flag and the firing of guns. At this fort Carson and 
three of the men ended their connection with the explorers, 
since all danger was over and there was no further need of a 



148 THE PATHBREAKERS 

guide. After arriving at St. Louis the expedition disbanded 
and the members scattered. Fremont went to Washington, 
where he wrote up the report of this second expedition. 
This w^as printed with the first report, and ten thousand 
extra copies were made for distribution throughout the 
country. 

For services rendered on this second expedition Fremont 
was appointed by President Tyler captain by brevet *'for 
gallant and highly meritorious services in two expeditions." 

Fremont was enthusiastic over California, its climate, 
its vegetation, and its unusual commercial position. After 
his return he had two earnest wishes: one, to see California 
settled with Americans, and the other, to make that beautiful 
country his home. 



3. THE MEXICAN WAR, 1845-47 

The third government expedition under the direction of 
Fremont reached Bent's Fort by the way of the Arkansas 
on August 2, 1845. Here Fremont again engaged Carson and 
Fitzpatrick to act as guides, and with sixty other ex- 
perienced men started for the Pacific. The object of this 
exploration was to follow up the Arkansas to its source in 
the Rocky Mountains, to complete the survey of the Great 
Salt Lake, and to extend this survey southwest to the 
Sierra Nevada and Coast Range, and to determine the 
best route by which to reach the Pacific. 

With no difficulty the party reached the southern end of 
the Great Salt Lake, where the men surveyed and explored 
for two weeks. The desert west of the lake was an unknown 
district to all; but Carson and two of the men traveled for 
sixty miles to the west, sending up signals of smoke to guide 
the rest. At last they crossed the Sierras and came to 
Sutter's Fort. 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 149 

For many years trappers had brought to the States 
glowing reports of the beautiful and rich California, which 
at that time belonged to Mexico. Indeed, so many Americans 
were settling in that country and Texas, bringing with them 
their ideas of independence, that Mexico passed an act in 
1833 forbidding foreign colonization in her border provinces. 

But the law scarcely checked the flow of American colo- 
nists to these outlying territories, particularly California, 
which had always proved attractive to every one that knew 
it. In 1846 there were in California about four hundred 
Americans out of a population of nine thousand. Most of 
these Americans were at Monterey, the great center of 
trade, and in the Sacramento Valley, where the settlers 
had their ranches in the neighborhood of Sutter's Fort. 

When the Mexican authorities in California heard of 
Fremont's entrance into the Sacramento Valley they became 
alarmed and questioned the right of the invasion. Sutter 
explained to the authorities that the expedition had only 
come to make some surveys in order to ascertain the best 
route from the United States to the Pacific Ocean; that the 
trip was made in the interest of science and commerce; and 
that the men composing the party were citizens, and not 
soldiers. 

Finally, after Fremont had been to Monterey to explain 
in person to General Castro, the governor, why he was in 
California, and to obtain his permission to explore the 
country, the explorers made a permanent camp in the valley 
of San Jose. This incensed the Mexicans, and General 
Castro revoked the permission to explore, ordering Fremont 
to withdraw from California, and stating that Americans 
were not allowed to settle in that province under the law 
of 1833. 

Fremont and his men then went north into the Oregon 
country. On his way he had serious conflicts with the 



150 THE PATHBREAKERS 

Indians of the Klamath tribe, who killed Basil Lajeunesse 
and three other men. Fremont had scarcely arrived in 
the Oregon country when he received a message that caused 
him to hasten back to California. War had been declared 
between Mexico and the United States. 

When Fremont again reached Cahfornia, May, 1846, he 
found the Americans much alarmed over the reports that 
Castro was organizing an army to drive them out of Califor- 
nia. The American ranch people under command of Fremont 
seized the town of Sonoma and hauled down the Mexican 
flag on which was a representation of a grizzly bear. This 
was the commencement of what was known as the ''Bear 
Flag Insurrection." Following this came an armed conflict 
between the Californians and the United States. Fremont, 
acting as an officer under the command of Commodore 
Robert Stockton, took a prominent part in the uprising when 
Monterey, Los Angeles, San Diego, and many other cities 
surrendered to the American forces. 

It now became necessary to apprise our government of 
the condition of affairs in California. On September 5, 
1846, Carson started on the long trip to Washington to carry 
despatches from Fremont. Carson thought that he would be 
able by fast and continuous traveling to make the journey 
in two months. Going by the way of the Gila Trail, by 
October 6th he was east of the Rockies, not many miles 
from his home at Taos. Here he was met by General 
Kearny, who w^as on the march to occupy Cahfornia. Carson 
told Kearny that he was too late, that California had been 
conquered, but the General ordered the guide to go back 
with him, sending the despatches to Washington by another 
man. The Gila Trail, being the most practical road for 
horses, was again put into use. By December they reached 
California, where they found that the Mexicans had not 
been conquered by any means, and where Kearny himself 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 151 

came near being conquered in a severe combat in which one 
half of his men were killed and the rest cooped up on a barren 
hill. Rehef must be had at once to save Kearny from 
surrender, and Kit Carson, accompanied only by Lieutenant 
Beale of the army, after a journey of extreme peril and 
hardship, found Stockton at San Diego in time to save 
brave Kearny and his men. 

Carson joined Fremont at Los Angeles, and stood by him 
all through the unfortunate dispute that disgraced our 
conquest of California. Stockton and Kearny each claimed 
chief command there, and Fremont sided with Stockton of 
the navy rather than with Kearny of the army. For this 
he was court-martialed and left the service in disgrace. 
Thus ended in gloom and misfortune this third expedition 
that began so gloriously. 



4. THE FIRST PRIVATE VENTURE, 1848-49 

The fourth expedition of Fremont was a private venture, 
undertaken in 1848 by him and Senator Benton, with the 
intent to show the world that Fremont was still a great 
leader who deserved better treatment than his country 
had given him. Fremont's purpose was to demonstrate 
the shortest and best route to California. Final arrange- 
ments were made from Fort Bent, when the expedition 
started up the Arkansas, November 25th, with every hope 
of being able to cross the San Juan Mountains, a branch of 
the Rocky Mountain system, without great difficulty or 
hardship. It was Fremont's chief misfortune that Carson 
was not with him, and that he had to trust to Bill Williams 
to lead him through the labyrinth of cafions west of the 
Arkansas. Williams was not equal to the task. After 
leaving Wet Mountain Valley and forging through Robi- 
deaux's Pass they became hopelessly lost in the mountains 



152 



THE PATHBREAKERS 




MONUMENT TO KIT CARSON IN SANTA FE, 
NEW MEXICO 



of Colorado. 
Winter came 
unusually early, 
storms of un- 
wonted severity 
obliterated the 
trails and filled 
the canons with 
snow; food sup- 
plies became 
exhausted; men 
and animals 
died; and had 
it not been for 
Fremont's pluck 
and endurance 
none w^ould have 
returned to civ- 
ilization. The 
starving condi- 
tion of his men 
determined Fre- 
mont to attempt 
to find Taos 
do^vn the Rio 
Grande, where 
food and horses 
might be ob- 
tained. Follow- 
ing the stream, 
he finally found 
Carson at his 
home in Taos, 
and the two 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 153 

headed a relief party to rescue what was left of the expedition. 
The suffering they had endured would be difficult of descrip- 
tion. With the ground covered with heavy snow, no grass 
or shrubs to be obtained, the mules resorted to eating the 
blankets that were put on them at night, as well as the 
blankets of the men. The men were reduced to the utmost 
extreme — that of cannibalism. Of the hundred mules and 
horses every one died, and eleven of the thirty-two men left 
their bones in the Colorado mountains. Evidently Fremont 
was not one of Fortune's favorites. But, as unconquerable 
as ever, he took the expedition through from Taos to Califor- 
nia by the way of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and the Gila Trail. 



5. THE LAST EXPEDITION, 1853-54 

Fremont was one of the men who will not admit failure. 
Like Frederick the Great, he was a small man with a great 
spirit, and Uke Frederick, too, he fought the harder when 
Fate was most unkind. At his own expense he fitted out 
another expedition in 1853, determined to accomplish what 
he had so utterly failed to do in 1848. He took but twenty 
men, half of them Delaware Indians. The starting-point 
of this, as of the previous expeditions, was Independence. 
Final arrangements were made at Fort Bent, and the real 
experience commenced in Colorado where the Rocky Moun- 
tains WTre crossed at Cochetopa Pass, not far from the scene 
of the terrible suffering of the previous expedition. Winter 
was fast approaching, and much precious time was lost by the 
party in searching for passes while floundering through deep 
snow that had by this time commenced to fill up ravines and 
obliterate any trace of a possible path. On this journey 
the protestations were numerous and the suffering beyond 
description, though the Sierras, not the Rockies, proved to 
be the real land of trouble. The horses had to be killed for 



154 THE PATHBREAKERS 

food, and when things came to the worst Fremont called 
his men together and made them promise that no matter 
how great their suffering they would not resort to can- 
nibalism as the men of the fourth expedition had done. 
Fremont manfully said to his starving men: ''If we are to 
die, let us die together like men." Then it was that the 
white men, Indians, and Mexicans, in the darkness of the 
night, amidst the deep snow on the mountain top, with a 
zero wind chilling the very marrow of their bones, entered 
into this solemn compact which was faithfully kept. Yet, 
so great was their suffering that the men were forced to 
eat cactus, the leather of their saddles and even the hide 
and burned bones of the horses whose flesh had long since 
been consumed. Thus they lived for fifty days, tramping 
through the snow with Fremont leading the way and break- 
ing the path. 

While on the Green River, before crossing the Wasatch 
Mountains, an alarm of ''Indians" was given, and at the 
same time sixty mounted Utahs, all with rifles or bows 
and arrows, came bearing down on the explorers' camp, 
threatening immediate extermination. Fremont with his 
usual composure gave a Colt's Navy six-shooter to one of 
his men and told him to shoot at a small piece of paper that 
had been torn from his record book and fastened to a tree. 
The instructions were to fire at intervals of from ten to 
fifteen seconds to call the attention of the Indians to the 
fact that it was not necessary for white men to reload their 
arms. When the first shot was fired, and the paper squarely 
hit, it made no further impression on the natives than for 
them to point to their rifles, as much as to say, "Yes, we can 
do that." But when the second shot went off without a 
change in the position of the arm they were much startled; 
when the third shot came they were not only startled but 
curious and confused. The revolver was then handed to 



FREMONT'S EXPLORATIONS 155 

one of the chiefs who fired and hit the paper; the fifth and 
sixth shots were made by two other Indians. By this time 
the natives were thoroughly frightened into acknowledging 
that they were at the mercy of the white man who could 
shoot his gun without loading it, and they calmly submitted 
to the requests of the explorer and his men. 

Finally, after the Green River was passed and the guide 
had gone astray, Fremont took the course that had been 
described to him by the mountain men and found passes 
in the mountains all of the way to California. This route 
lay along a line between the 38th and 39th parallels, running 
through Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. 

''Something of the practical value of these explorations 
may be inferred from the fact that the great railroads 
connecting the West and the East lie in a large measure 
through the country explored by Fremont, and sometimes 
in the very fines he followed." 

REFERENCES 

Prince. Historical Sketches of New Mexico. 

Semple. American History and its Geographical Conditions. 

Bancroft. History of California, Arizona and New Mexico. 

Bruce. The Romance of American Expansion. 

Inman. The Santa Fe Trail. 

Inman. The Great Salt Lake Trail. 

Grinnell. Trails of the Pathfinders. 

Fremont. Memoirs of My Life. 

Coutant. History of Wyoming. 

Hough. The Way to the West. 

Dellenbaugh. Breaking the Wilderness. 

Century Magazine, Vol. XLI. 

Royce. History of California. 



CHAPTER YI 

THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 



1. 

2. 
3. 
4. 


California 
Nevada 
Colorado 
Montana 


5. Idaho 

6. The Freight, Express and 

Stage Lines, and the Pony 

Express 

1. CALIFORNIA 



In closing an earlier chapter we said that the fur trade was 
not only the most romantic but also the most important fac- 
tor in the early history of the Great West. It is equally true 
that the gold discoveries hold first place in its later history, 
both for romance and for significance. Gold was first dis- 
covered in California at Sutter's Fort, the post so often men- 
tioned in the course of this narrative. The fort was built 
near the junction of the Sacramento and American rivers, by 
Captain John A. Sutter, a Swiss gentleman who came to Ore- 
gon with the early pioneers from Missouri, and soon moved 
to California, where both he and his fort became famous. 
Emigrants, as early as 1846, began to enter the Sacramento 
Valley, always going to Sutter's Fort for supplies and horses. 
Realizing that much grain would be needed for flour, Captain 
Sutter instructed his carpenter, James W. Marshall, to erect 
a sawmill to make lumber for a flour-mill. In order to turn 
the wheel of this mill, a dam was constructed, the water 
from which ran in a channel, or race. In this race in 1848 
Marshall first found little specks of bright-colored gravel, 
some of them as large as a grain of wheat. Being skeptical 
of their worth, Marshall sought the assistance of Sutter and 
an old encyclopedia. Every test that was made confirmed 

156 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 157 

the belief that gold had been found in paying quantities. 
Much precaution was taken to keep the matter a secret, at 
least until the mill was built, for fear that the men would aban- 
don their work in order to hunt for the precious metal. But 
such a secret could not long be kept. The men all deserted, 
and an examination of the ravines and creeks showed that 
gold was everywhere. The people living outside of the val- 
ley were skeptical of the richness of the find at first, but the 
continued reports brought people into the valley from San 
Francisco, San Jose, Monterey, and down as far south as 
San Diego. Soldiers and sailors deserted, men left their 
farms, towns were depopulated. The fever for gold soon 
became epidemic. ''The whole country from San Francisco 
to Los Angeles, and from seashore to the base of the Sierra 
Nevada resounded to the sordid cry gold ! gold ! gold ! " The 
report of the gold to be found in the streams was carried to 
the States by the Mormons who had helped build the saw- 
mill, and who afterwards went to Salt Lake. These were 
some of the men who served in the Mormon Battalion and 
had gone to California by the way of the Gila Trail. 

T'he outgoing ships from San Francisco had taken the news 
to other parts of the world. As a result an invasion of gold- 
seekers came from the Hawaiian Islands, from Oregon, from 
Mexico, and from far-away China. It is well to remember 
that the first gold mined in California, and indeed in all the 
great gold camps of the West, was free gold, lying loose in the 
sand of the streams, the gravel of old creek beds, and the gul- 
lies of hillsides. The particles varied in size from the tiniest 
dots, called ''scales,'^ to nuggets so valuable as to stagger 
belief. Some of these nuggets of pure gold found were 
worth S3, 000. At $18 an ounce this represents almost twelve 
pounds of pure gold in a single lump. These finds were 
rare, however, and most miners had to content themselves 
with taking $20 to $100 a day out of the sand, in the form of 



158 THE PATHBREAKERS 

countless particles, called gold dust or, in the short verna- 
cular of the day, ''dust." They needed none of the expen- 
sive machinery used to-day, when most of our gold is mined 
in the form of ore that is embedded in rocks that must be 
crushed in a great mill before the mercury and cyanide used 
to separate the gold from the rock can be brought into play. 
In those days a man who had a good claim could make big 
wages with no other tools than a pickaxe, shovel, and tin pan. 
Those who operated on a large scale had no more expensive 
apparatus than a series of wooden troughs, called sluice- 
boxes. The gold-bearing gravel would be thrown into the 
upper one of these, and a stream of water would be rushed 
over it. The gravel, being comparatively light, would be 
carried away and deposited as ''tailings" at the end of the 
lowest sluice-box, w^hile the gold, being heavy, would sink 
and be held fast by the mercury which lined the bottom of 
the box, and which attracts and holds gold much as a magnet 
attracts steel. To be sure, such a crude affair could not 
save all the gold. Many of the old tailing dumps are still 
so rich in it that men are making comfortable wages in 
working them over. This washing out of free gold is called 
placer mining, and the ease with which it could be carried 
on explains why all sorts of men stampeded to the placer 
fields of the West. 

The amount of the metal found by each man of course 
varied very much. Some panned out $1,000 a day, and 
occasionally the amount would reach $5,000 for a single day's 
labor. It is estimated that during the year 1848 gold to 
the amount of $5,000,000 was taken out of the streams of 
Sacramento Valley. 

We are told that at no time since the discovery of the New 
World by Columbus, when gold and silver went in such 
abundance to Europe, had there been such a wide-spread in- 
terest in the finding of gold. Every ship that could be put 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 159 

into use took the gold-seekers to California. ''From Maine 
to Texas the noise of preparation for travel was heard in 
every town. The name of California was in every mouth; 
it was the current theme for conversation, song, and sermon. 
Every scrap of information concerning the country was 
eagerly devoured." 

There were' three routes that were taken by the people 
bound for the new gold fields : First, the sea voyage around 
South America; second, the sea and land journey by way of 
the Isthmus of Panama; and third, overland, in wagons, on 
horseback or on foot. By the overland ways there were 
two chief routes that lay along the trails : First, on the Santa 
Fe Trail to the city of that name, and thence over the old 
Spanish road or over the Gila Trail; second, the northern 
route, over the old Oregon, Great Salt Lake, and California 
trails. This northern route was the one most used by the 
gold-seekers, who were, as we know, following in the paths 
of the Indians, trappers, and explorers. 

Again, the starting-place for the new El Dorado was from 
Independence and St. Joseph, although some of the parties 
left the Missouri at Council Bluffs. Vehicles of all descrip- 
tions now traveled on the trails, for the path had become 
pretty well worn and easy of travel. There was the prairie 
schooner with its white canvas tent-Hke cover, drawn by 
oxen, and the two-wheeled cart with the old family horse. 
''Ho, for the diggings!" was not an unusual sign to be seen 
painted on the canvas of the wagons. 

In the month of April, 1849, twenty thousand people left 
the Missouri River for the gold fields, and " by the summer 
there was a continuous caravan from Independence to Fort 
Laramie." ^ One traveler over the trail said that he counted 
four hundred fifty-nine wagons within the space of nine miles. 

Stansbury says : "The road was hterally strewn with arti- 
1 Bancroft. 



160 THE PATHBREAKERS 

cles that had been thrown away. Bar-iron and steel, large 
blacksmith anvils, bellows, crowbars, drills, augers, gold 
washers, chisels, axes, lead, trunks, spades, plows, grind- 
stones, baking ovens, cooking stoves without number, kegs, 
barrels, harness, clothing, bacon, and beans were found along 
the road in pretty much the order enumerated." 

While some families were trying to get rid of their posses- 
sions others clung to theirs until the end of the journey. An 
interesting description is given of a Dutchman who drove six 
yoke of oxen with a heavy wagon loaded to the top with 
household furniture of every description. Behind him came 
the wife, driving a covered wagon in which were numerous 
children. On the back of the wagon was fastened a large 
chicken-coop filled with hens, close after these came the 
milch cows, followed by the old, gentle, worn-out family horse 
on the back of which sat a browned girl, while in the ex- 
treme rear trotted the growing colt. 

The journey from Fort Laramie was not a hard one as far 
as Fort Hall, or Salt Lake. It was when the desert was 
reached west of the lake that real danger began. In fact, 
many of the weary people did not attempt to go farther than 
Salt Lake and rested with the Mormons until spring. 

The scarcity of water in the desert caused the most suffer- 
ing. After travehng along the banks of Humboldt River for 
many miles the traveler found that the water disappeared in 
a hole or ''sink," and he was left unprepared for the barren 
tract of land that lay beyond to the southwest. 

It is estimated that during the first year of the ''forty- 
niners" ninety thousand people went to California. We 
must not suppose that these all were poor emigrants seeking 
a home, for every class of people, in all callings and pro- 
fessions, was fully represented. This gold fever was, also, 
not limited by any means to the inhabitants of the United 
States, for all races, colors, and conditions of men flocked to 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 161 

this new country, and, as if by night, the valley along the 
Sierra grew into a city of tents. 

Prices for everything rose to unheard of heights. No one 
thought of using change to an amount less than fifty cents. 
A dollar was the price of a newspaper, and even at that price 
it was eagerly purchased even though a month old. 

The gold produced in 1848 was equal to $5,000,000, while in 
1849 it jumped to $23,000,000, and the fame of California 
spread far and wide, attracting the gambler, the border- 
ruffian, and the criminal, who all made conditions dangerous 
and often unbearable. The "vigilance committees" of the 
miners took matters into their own hands, and the offenders 
were punished under the terms of Ijnich law. 

The lust for gold created new centers of population. 
Towns of tents grew into cities of substantial houses. San 
Francisco, with a population of a few hundred before the dis- 
covery of gold, became a large commercial center with fifty 
thousand inhabitants in 1860. Stockton and Sacramento 
developed rapidly, becoming interior supply stations, where 
multitudes of people flocked to purchase necessities. Salt 
Lake City benefited by the exodus from the States to the 
gold field, for not only did the emigrants purchase from the 
Mormons grain and needed vegetables, but thousands de- 
cided to go no farther, and to make their home in the fertile 
valley of these successful farmers. By 1850 over 10,000 
people had settled in the region of Great Salt Lake. 

People often ask, ''What did Marshall and Sutter gain 
from the gold strike in the Sacramento Valley?" Nothing. 
Both of these men expected to make large fortunes from the 
sawmill. But, inside of a few months, all of the large and 
desirable trees had been cut down by the miners, and the 
wheels of the mill no longer turned. Sutter had large tracts 
of land in the valley, but the squatters and lawyers managed 
to take them all from him. 



162 THE PATHBREAKERS 

Both of these men for a time received a pension, but Mar- 
shall ''at the age of seventy-three died alone in a solitary 
cabin. He was buried at Coloma in sight of the place where 
he discovered the gold. His figure, in colossal bronze, stands 
over his grave." 

2. NEVADA 

It has wisely been said that ''the history of the Comstock 
lode is to a great extent the history of Nevada." The Mor- 
mons had established trading-posts along the trail of the 
California miners, particularly in Carson Valley, where pay- 
ing dirt had attracted many prospectors. In this valley 
Carson City was founded in 1858, but the real excitement 
came the following year with the discovery of silver near 
Gold Hill, situated but a few miles east of Lake Tahoe. 
This was the famous Comstock lode, which not only attracted 
the world by its marvelous wealth but made Virginia, Carson, 
and Gold Hill cities. No other mining excitement in this 
country ever equaled the wild and widespread mania for 
gold and silver in Nevada. It must be remembered that 
Nevada was at that time the western part of Utah, inhabited 
by the native Digger Indians and a few Mormons. 

The same class of people that rushed to California poured 
into this new mining camp. Within five years something 
like $100,000,000 worth of gold and silver were taken from 
the sides of the mountains, and of this amount only about 
one-third was gold. Nevada, when she was admitted as a 
state into the Union, was known as the "Silver State," on 
account of the preponderance of the native silver found in 
her hillsides. Since 1861 this Comstock lode has yielded 
$350,000,000 of bullion, of this 40% was gold and 60% silver. 

Marvelous veins of gold and silver w^re discovered in 
many other places in this new ore field; the richness of the 
finds made the world gold-mad, and the tide of fortune-seek- 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 163 

ers crowded the trails. In Mark Twain's ''Roughing It" 
you will find a graphic picture of these wild days. He was 
there during the most exciting time, living in Virginia City 
and reporting on the ''Territorial Enterprise." 

If the precious metals had not been discovered in the 
mountains of the Pacific coast, the West would still be to-day 
in an undeveloped and unsettled condition. A large part 
of this floating population stayed in the West to "grow up 
with the country," and made their homes amidst the moun- 
tains and valleys and in this manner completed another 
chapter in western development. Nevada has experienced 
in recent years another exciting period. The mining camps 
of Tonapah and Goldfield have become prosperous towns 
with an annual output of gold and silver amounting to many 
millions of dollars. At Ely, copper is produced on a large 
scale. Modern methods of mining and the erection of smel- 
ters in the mining districts have made many of the old aban- 
doned mines very valuable. 



3. COLORADO 

When Pike was captive in Mexico, Pursley showed the 
explorer a shot-pouch of nuggets which he had found on the 
head of the Platte River. It is a strange coincidence that 
after half a century gold should be found in fabulous quanti- 
ties in the home of Pursley's nuggets, and that Pike's Peak 
should be the center of the early treasure-sought district. 

Many of the early trappers carried nuggets in their shot- 
pouches which they asserted they had found in the mountains, 
but furs paid better and no particular attention w^as paid to 
the gold until California sent the reports of her rich fields to 
the people of the East. It is true also that the Indians knew 
of the gold-bearing mountains, as did the missionaries who 
were bringing the gospel to the natives. Father De Smet 



164 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



knew of the valuable gold deposits in the Rocky Mountains, 
but dreaded to have the facts known for fear that miners 
might occupy the country and exterminate his beloved 
Indians. It has been said that the early missionaries of 
California knew of the rich metal in the Sacramento Valley, 




DENVER IN 1865 

but they also feared the invasion of the white men before 
their good work could be completed. 

In 1858 a party of Cherokee Indians, who had been in 
California looking for gold and lands on which to make 
their homes, discovered that gold existed in the sands of 
Cherry Creek, Colorado, and other streams of that region. 
After returning to their home in the southwest, they organ- 
ized a mining party and returned to the Rocky Mountains to 
explore and dig for gold. From this beginning numerous 
parties were formed that year to work in the mountains of 
Colorado. It was during this year that Colorado Springs 
and Colorado City were laid out. Then, within five miles of 
the present site of Denver, a city of twenty cabins was started, 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 165 

which was called '^ Montana." In September, St. Charles 
was built at the mouth of Cherry Creek, and a month later 
a little settlement on the west bank of the creek w^as called 
''Auraria." The three towns ultimately united and were 
knoAvn as Denver. 

In the summer of 1859 there were as many as 150,000 gold- 
seekers within the present boundaries of Colorado, but one- 
third of these soon turned back toward the States, completely 
disgusted, swearing that the reports of riches in the Pike's 
Peak region were all lies. Their trail, too, was strewn with 
household goods of every description, with many a broken 
wagon and worn-out horse, and too often with the bones of 
the adventurers. But even as they went homeward news 
came that their more persevering comrades had made tre- 
mendous strikes, and away they went for the mountains 
again pell-mell, — so hard it is to resist the lure of gold. 

From now on mining camps sprang up in every direction, 
and thousands of emigrants came to the new gold fields. 
People fairly pushed each other in order to get to the moun- 
tains first, wild to make a big strike. One day there would 
be a rumor of a discovery, and the people would swarm to 
that locality, '^alighting like locusts upon a field which could 
not furnish ground for one in a thousand of those who came. 
Finding themselves too late, they swarmed again at some 
other spot, which they abandoned in a similar manner." 

Cities and towTis grew up in a day, and flourishing little 
settlements dotted the gulches and the ravines. These 
mining camps developed into the to\vns of Golden, Central 
City, Golden Gate, Black Hawk, and Georgeto^vn. 




A KIT CARSON AND EARLY PIONEER MONUMENT ERECTED IN 
DENVER, 1911 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 



167 



4. MONTANA 

When Lewis and Clark passed over the land now within 
the boundaries of the state of Montana they were utterly- 
unconscious of the hidden fields of gold that were often under 
their feet. Had the truth been known, the men of the expedi- 
tion never would have reached the coast, for the party would 




Northern Pacific Railway 
PIONEER GULCH. 



ONE OF THE FIRST PLACER MINING SPOTS 
IN MONTANA 



have disbanded at once and gone to digging. Had the trap- 
pers and fur men discovered the gold, how different would 
have been the early development of that territory ! Without 
doubt, it would have come into its own long before Califor- 
nia or Oregon territory. 

For years, centuries it may be, these regions were the 
haunts of the Indians. Then again for a long time this dis- 
trict was the trapping-ground of the fur men, and was un- 



168 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



I' 




MP- 


^jL 4 .<i•^v^. 


i 


^MWiiiSira)MiiiiiiMSHilBMBW!WWi1ff^^ ~ .. ^^^^. " ^'^^ 



Northern Pacific Railway 

AN OLD-TIME ARRASTRE USED IN GRINDING GOLD AND SILVER ORE 




From Northern Pacific Railway 

VIRGINIA CITY, MONTANA, IN THE SIXTIES 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 



169 



molested by the western tramp of the home-seeKer, or over- 
land traveler. But the time came when the gulches and 
mountains could no longer conceal their secret, and gold-mad 
people claimed the territory. 

It was in 1862, fifty-seven years after Lewis and Clark had 
passed through the country, that John White and William 
Eads found ''pay dirt" on Grasshopper Creek, and the town 
of Bannock sprang up there with mining-camp rapidity and 
for a short time was the capital of Montana. 

In 1863 rich ore w^as discovered in the Beaverhead Valley, 
where Virginia City, first called Varina, sprang into existence, 
reaching a population of over four thousand inside of a year. 
Virginia City was the seat of government until 1866, when it 
was removed to Helena. The tide of immigration during 
these years divided into three streams : one flowing to south- 
ern Idaho and Oregon, the second to California, and the 
third to Montana. Helena, in 1864, became a rival of 




Northern Pacific Railway 

THE FIRST BOARD HOUSE ERECTED IN HELENA, MONTANA 



170 THE PATHBREAKERS 

Virginia City, owing to the rich discoveries made by John 
Cowan in Last Chance Gulch. During the first season over 
$16,000,000 of gold was shipped out of that region. The 
fact that such fabulous sums of gold were being sent for 
transportation down the Missouri River attracted many 
desperate characters to the mining camps. It has been said 
that the population of the camp was divided into three classes : 
the disgusted Colorado miners, who were called the "Pike's 
Peakers," the emigrants from the East, and the disappointed 
miners from California. Among those who came there were 
many lawless desperadoes, fugitives, outlaws, and thieves 
who are always to be found in a frontier mining camp. This 
class of men kept the vigilance committees very busy. 
Many of these desperate men had a secret organization, by 
which they banded together and called themselves '^ road- 
agents." The chief object of this "agency" was to reheve 
the travelers of their gold dust or what valuables they might 
have. They were nothing more nor less than the old- 
fashioned highway robbers. They made life in the moun- 
tains terrible for a time, but finally their impudence became 
unbearable, the better citizens organized into vigilance com- 
mittees to combat them, as had been done in California, and 
after a short period of desperate struggle the forces of law 
and order won. 

5. IDAHO 

The first discovery of gold in Idaho was made by E. D. 
Pierce in 1860 in the Clearwater country, and the mining 
camp of Pierce City was named after him. During the sum- 
mer of this year rich deposits were found on Oro Fino Creek, 
where the tent city of Orofino was estabhshed. This placer 
mining region was above Lewiston, where the first real town 
was built, and which became Idaho's first capital. The real 
history of Idaho begins with the finding of gold in Boise 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 17l 

Basin in August, 1862. The Bannock Indians had known 
for many years of the yellow metal that lay hidden in the 
mountains. One day one of this tribe, watching Moses 
Splawn wash out these glittering particles of metal from the 
sand in the sluices, told the white man of a basin in the moun- 
tains where he had picked up '^ chunks" of this metal when 
he was a boy. Following the direction which the native 
gave of the country, Splawn finally found the gold, and here 
the famous Boise Basin Mining Camp suddenly grew into 
existence. By the next spring the usual stampede had 
commenced in earnest for the Idaho mines. Men from the 
California and Nevada camps tumbled over each other in 
their frenzied desire to arrive first; the agriculturists of Ore- 
gon and Washington added to the rush; and the gold-seekers 
from the East swelled the population. 

The Indians became very hostile, and murdered many of 
the emigrants who were on their way to the camp. An appeal 
was made to the United States government, and a military 
fort was established on the Boise River near the present site 
of Boise about forty miles above old Fort Boise, the trading- 
post of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company. 

During the year of 1863 thirty thousand emigrants came 
to southern Idaho, and with them rapid improvements and 
corresponding high prices. One merchant said: ''I sold 
shovels at $12 apiece as fast as I could count them out." 
Another merchant brought a wagonload of cats and chickens 
to the ''diggins." The chickens sold for $5 each and the 
cats sold for $10. Hay was sold as high as forty cents a 
pound, and was hard to obtain even at that rate. To buy a 
horse, one had to part with a knife, two blankets, a good 
shirt, a pair of leggins, a pocket mirror, and numerous small 
trinkets. If you will look carefully at your map of Idaho 
you will find Sinker Creek. The story is told that some men 
fishing on that stream and looking for something to serve as 



172 THE PATHBREAKERS 

a weight for their line, fastened a gold nugget to the cord in 
place of the usual lead sinker. This simply illustrates the 
abundance of the yellow metal found during those exciting 
days. 

6. THE FREIGHT, EXPRESS AND STAGE LINES, AND THE 
PONY EXPRESS 

Freight. All these towns springing up in the mountains 
needed supplies. Their sole business was the production 
of gold. Everything they ate or wore or read, even the 
kerosene oil they used for making light and the tools they 
needed for digging gold or the scales they must have for 
weighing the dust had to be brought from the East. Hence 
sprang up a great freight business between the Missouri 
River and the mining camps in the mountains. Lummis in 
his ''Pioneer Transportation in America" says that in 1860 
five hundred freight wagons frequently passed Fort Kearney 
in a single day, that in one day 888 west-bound wagons, drawn 
by 10,650 oxen, mules, and horses, were counted between 
Fort Kearney and Julesburg, and that in 1865 six thousand 
wagons passed Fort Kearney in a period of six weeks. The 
single firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell used at one time 
6,250 freight wagons and 75,000 oxen. Probably there 
are not to-day so many oxen working in the United States 
as this one firm used in this western freight traffic half a 
century ago. It was a colossal business — this of supplying 
the necessities of the towns that had sprung up in the Far 
West, and it deepened and widened the Oregon Trail into 
a great highway, the like of which was never known before. 

It took all summer for one of these freight trains to go to 
Bannock or Salt Lake and return. The danger of loss by 
fire, flood, or Indian attack was great. No wonder, then, 
that prices were high in those western towns, that a pound 
of flour sometimes cost a dollar and a gallon of kerosene a 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 173 

dollar and a half. No wonder that life was simple and the 
people learned to live without many of the things that had 
been deemed necessities ''back home." To be sure, most 
of the freight that reached the mining camps of Cahfornia, 
Nevada, and Idaho came from the west through the port of 
San Francisco, or up the Columbia to Umatilla, whence it 
was freighted by wagon to Pierce City, Orofino, Idaho City, 
and Boise; to be sure, also, very much freight went by boat 
up the Missouri to Fort Benton, and by a good road only 
140 miles long to Helena, whence it was sent to Deer Lodge, 
Bannock, and Virginia City; still, all the towns in Colorado, 
Wyoming, and Utah depended upon the freight trains from 
Atchison, St. Joseph, and Kansas City to supply them. 
Even the goods that came by way of San Francisco or the 
Columbia had to be shipped around Cape Horn, a tedious 
and expensive process. In those days the Missouri River 
was a real highway and one of the chief commercial lines of 
the country. Its turbid waters witnessed an activity never 
seen there before or since. Almost every day boats left St. 
Louis or St. Joseph with passengers and freight bound for 
the Far West. Almost every day boats tied up at Fort 
Benton and discharged their cargoes of people and goods for 
distribution to the gold diggings. Fort Benton was a busy 
place then, and Helena, though great as a gold mining camp, 
was still greater as an emporium for the distribution of goods. 
It was this favoring geographic situation that enabled Helena 
to outstrip all the other towns of the territory, and to wrest 
the seat of government away from Virginia City. 

The Stage Coach and Express. But the freight team was 
too slow for the transportation of passengers, express, and 
mail. Both East and West demanded more speedy service. 
To meet this demand the stage coach appeared. Some of 
these ancient vehicles may still be seen in western towns 
serenely decaying in the obscurity of back yards. They 



174 THE PATHBREAKERS 

were jaunty enough in their day, with their cavernous bodies 
extended behind into a platform or ''boot" for the reception 
of baggage, and were built high up in front to furnish a throne 
for the driver, who needed a high seat, not only that he might 
keep a better lookout for Indians and road-agents, but also 
that he might the better supervise the six horses bounding 
along under his skillful management. They were not un- 
comfortable, those old coaches, for the body swung on great 
leather straps, which softened the jolts and gave a gentle, 
swaying motion to the heavy contrivance. But of course 
even this comparative comfort became irksome after several 
weeks of constant travel, continuous through the hours of 
darkness as well as of daylight. It took two weeks to reach 
Helena from Atchison, and the fare was $150. It took three 
weeks to reach Sacramento. Do you begin to realize now 
what a boon railroads were to the West? It was a standing 
joke in California that the term of a member of Congress 
might expire before he ever got to Washington unless he had 
good luck. 

With the help of the United States government a line of 
regular stages was established, and began to run in 1858. 
This was the southern route, better known as the ''Butter- 
field Route," from the name of its founder. It ran from St. 
Louis to San Francisco by way of El Paso, Yuma, and Los 
Angeles. By going so far south it avoided the deep snows in 
the mountains of the north, but it increased the distance by 
seven hundred miles. This route was discontinued when the 
Civil War broke out, and the central route, known to the 
people of the West as Ben Holladay's Stage Line, was es- 
tablished in its stead. This line began to run in 1861, and 
held the field until superseded by the steam cars in 1869. 
It ran from St. Joseph, Missouri, the western terminus of the 
eastern railroads, to Sacramento, California, the eastern 
terminus of the Pacific coast railroads. This was a run of 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 175 

1,900 miles and was made in eighteen daj's, if everything 
went well. We are already familiar with the names of the 
chief stations on this route, Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie, 
Fort Bridger, Salt Lake City, Carson City, and Placerville. 
You see it followed the Oregon Trail. 

The government paid Holladay a million dollars a year 
for carrying mail. Add to this the passenger fares collected, 
and you will readily see that the gross receipts were a princely 
sum annually. But the famous Ben had to keep the line 
equipped with 100 expensive Concord coaches, 2,700 horses 
and mules, $55,000 worth of harness, and 250 men of more 
than ordinary skill and courage. Hay and oats cost him a 
million dollars a year, for he sometimes had to pay at the 
rate of $125 a ton for hay. At one time, in a spirit of western 
rivalry, he drove from Salt Lake to Atchison in eight days, 
but in doing it he ruined horses and equipment worth twenty 
thousand dollars. When, besides all this, w^e remember that 
the Indians stole his stock, killed his drivers, and burned 
his stations we can readily understand why Ben failed to get 
rich and why he was glad to sell out to the Wells, Fargo 
Company in 1866. 

The rival stage line that aroused Ben to that frenzied race 
which cost him twenty thousand dollars was owned by Rus- 
sell, Majors, and Waddell, the great freighting firm. They 
ran from Leavenworth, Kansas, to Salt Lake City by way of 
Denver and thence northwest over the trail mapped by 
Fremont in 1843. Over this route Majors drove from Salt 
Lake to Leavenworth, a distance of 1,200 miles, in ten days. 
A record which was a nightmare to Holladay till he beat it. 

The Pony Express. Even the stages were not swift enough 
to suit those who were awaiting letters. To satisfy them the 
Pony Express was instituted to carry letters only. There is 
no more picturesque achievement of the plains than the oper- 
ations of the Pony Express, carrying letters from Independ- 



176 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



ence to Sacramento, a distance of 1 ,950 miles. ' ' Never before 
or since has mail been carried so fast, so far, and so long mere- 
ly by horse power." ^ The Pony Express was in operation 
for about two years after April, 1860, during which time all 
letters between the Missouri and the Pacific were carried in 




SOUTH END OF GREAT SALT LAKE 

The Pony Express men used to ride between the mountain and the lake. 



small leather bags attached to the saddles of the daring riders. 
This fast mail service went over the overland stage route 
from the Missouri, across Kansas to the Platte, through the 
Continental Divide by the way of South Pass, down Emi- 
gration Canon to Salt Lake City; then, skirting the southern 
shore of the lake, the road led across the desert to the Hum- 

^ Lummis. 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 177 

boldt, along its waters into the desert at Carson Lake, into 
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, through a pass at the head of 
Carson River and by way of Placerville to Sacramento. 

To keep the service in operation, five hundred enduring 
and fast ponies were in constant use, eighty expert riders 
and two hundred station men. In addition, one hundred 
and ninety stations, five to one hundred miles apart, were 
strung all along the line. Russell, Majors, and Waddell, 
running at this time a daily stage-coach line, undertook the 
management of this mail service, utiHzing many of their 
stage stations for the express service. While the horses were 
picked with the greatest care, the selection of riders received 
even greater consideration. They must be wiry, cool, watch- 
ful, and quick. ''It was no easy duty; horse and human 
flesh were strained to the limits of physical tension. Day 
or night, in sunshine or in storm, under the darkest skies, in 
the pale moonlight, and with only the stars at times to guide 
him, the brave rider must speed on. Rain, hail, snow, or 
sleet, there was no delay; his precious burden of letters de- 
manded his best efforts under the stern necessities of the 
hazardous service; it brooked no detention; on he must ride. 
Sometimes his pathway led across level prairies, straight 
as the flight of an arrow. It was oftener a zigzag trail 
hugging the brink of awful precipices, and dark, narrow, 
canons infested with watchful savages, eager for the scalp 
of the daring man who had the temerity to enter their 
mountain fastness."^ When a rider arrived at one of the 
stations, he found his new mount saddled and bridled, and 
he was given just two minutes to change his horse and the 
mail, but he did it in less time, and was on, and off again 
almost before his foaming horse had come to a standstill. 
Two hundred fifty miles a day was the scheduled rate, and 

1 Inman. The Great Salt Lake Trail. By permission of Crane 
& Co., Topeka. 



178 THE PATHBREAKERS 

no surplus weight in rider or equipment was permitted, hence 
lithe young men were selected, and only a knife and a revolver 
allowed for self-defense. The mail-pouches were water- 
proof, sealed, and securely fastened to the front and back of 
the saddle. The letters were carefully wrapped in oilcloth 
and sealed. These pouches were locked at the starting- 
station and never opened until they reached the end of their 
route. The rate of postage was five dollars a half ounce, in 
the early months of the service, but this was later reduced to 
one dollar. All papers for the Pacific were printed on tissue 
paper, and went as letter postage in letter envelopes. Never 
but once on this long dangerous route was a mail-bag lost. 
One rider was scalped by the Indians, but the riderless pony 
came panting into the next station with the mail safely fast- 
ened to the empty saddle. The scheduled time for crossing 
the plains with this nimble California mustang service was 
ten days, but the last message of Buchanan went from St. 
Joseph to Sacramento in eight days and a few hours. The 
greatest achievement was accomplished when the news of 
Lincoln's inauguration was rushed over the two thousand 
miles in seven days and seventeen hours. 

When William Cody, Buffalo Bill, was fourteen years of 
age he became a pony-express rider. Many were his hair- 
breadth escapes, and thrilling were his experiences as he rode 
back and forth over the trail. ^' While engaged in the ex- 
press service, his route lay between Red Buttes and the Three 
Crossings of the Sweetwater. It was a most dangerous, long, 
and lonely trail, with perilous crossings of swollen and turbu- 
lent streams. An average of fifteen miles an hour had to be 
made, including change of horses, detours for safety, and 
time for meals. Once, upon reaching Three Crossings, he 
found that the rider on the next division had been killed the 
night before, and he was called on to make the extra trip 



THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 179 

until another rider could be produced. This was a request 
compliance with which would involve the most taxing labors 
and an endurance few people are capable of; nevertheless 
young Cody was promptly on hand for the additional jour- 
ney, and reached Rocky Ridge, the Hmit of the second route, 
on time. Then he rode back to Red Buttes without a rest. 
This round trip of three hundred twenty-one miles was made 
without a stop, except for meals and to change horses, and 
every station on the route was entered on time. This is 
one of the longest and best ridden pony-express journeys 
ever made, the entire distance being covered in twenty-one 
hours and thirty minutes." ^ 

''Pony Bob" (Robert H. Haslam), who was on the first 
relay and in the service to its end, made a record ride of 
three hundred eight miles without leaving the saddle. The 
Indians had killed the man at the next station, and he passed 
not only the burning ruins of that station but two others 
before he found some one to take his place. For this terrible 
work these men received only $125 a month and board. 

Mark Twain, who at one time staged along the Overland 
Trail, has very graphically described the pony-express rider, 
whom all in the stage had a great desire to see. "Presently 
the driver exclaims: 'Here he comes.' Every neck is 
stretched farther and every eye strained wider. Away across 
the endless dead level of the prairie a black speck appears 
against the sky, and it is plain that it moves. Well, I should 
think so ! In a second or two it becomes a horse and a rider, 
rising and falling, rising and falling, sweeping toward us, 
nearer and nearer, growing more and more distinct, more and 
more sharply defined. Nearer and still nearer, and the 
flutter of the hoofs comes faintly to the ear. Another instant 
a whoop and a hurrah from our upper deck, a wave of the 

1 Majors. Seventy Years on the Frontier. 



180 THE PATHBREAKERS 

rider's hand but no reply, and the man and the horse burst 
past our excited faces and so winged away Hke a belated 
fragment of a storm." ^ 

REFERENCES 

Bancroft. History of California. 

Century Magazine, Vol. XLI. 

Royce. History of California. 

Stansbury. Report of Great Salt Lake. 

McMurray. Pioneers of the Rocky IVIountains and the West. 

Wheeler. The Trail of Lewis and Clark. 

Bancroft. History of Nevada, Colorado and Montana. 

Hailey. History of Idaho. 

Langford. Vigilante Days and Ways. 

Twain. Roughing It. 

Majors. Seventy Years on the Frontier. 

Inman. The Great Salt Lake Trail. 

Vischer. The Pony Express. 

Fairbanks. The Western United States. 

Cody. Tales of the Plains. 

Root and Connelley. The Overland Stage to California. 

Parrish. The Great Plains. 

Lummis. Pioneer Transportation in America. 

Whitney. History of Utah. 

Paxson. The Last American Frontier. 

^ Roughing It. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 

1. The Bozeman Trail 4. The Sioux 

2. The Cheyenne Uprising 5. Chief Joseph 

3. The Apaches 6. The Utah Indians 

7. The Modocs 

1. THE BOZEMAN TRAIL 

The Soldier and the Settler came hand in hand to the 
West. The soldiers were not sent into the wilderness to tame 
the red man until the white man showed his intention to 
build his home in the land beyond the Missouri. The white 
man could not bring his family to the western plains and 
the Rocky Mountains, among the fierce Indians, until some 
protection was given by an armed force of men. The time 
for the actual settler had now arrived. The explorer, the 
fur hunter, the trader, the missionary, and the miner had 
each done his work in the direct preparation for the most 
important man of all, the actual settler. 

Military occupation of the territory of the Indian and 
fur trapper now began. The government built Fort Logan 
on the Arkansas, near the site of the historic Bent's Fort 
on the old Santa Fe Trail. The more celebrated Fort 
Union of the American Fur Company, at the mouth of the 
Yellowstone, was also obtained for a government post, as 
was the famous Fort Laramie on the Oregon Trail. The 
Santa Fe Trail was the military road from Fort Leavenworth 
to Fort Logan; the Oregon Trail, from Fort Leavenworth to 
Fort Laramie; the Bozeman Road led to the Indian country 

181 



182 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



of northern Wyoming and Montana; and the South Platte 
Trail from Fort Bent, to Fort Laramie and then north by way 
of the Black Hills to Fort Pierre on the Missouri. These 
and other good fur trails became military roads without hav- 
ing to be made or altered at the expense of the government. 
Then again the steamboats, introduced by the fur men on 
the Missouri, were ready to transport mihtary troops and 




Northern Pacific Railway 

DIAMOND CITY AND CONFEDERATE GULCH IN THE SIXTIES 

(Montana) 

their stores, as well as the actual settler. Without these 
pioneer steps in the expansion of our western country the 
soldier would have been confronted with an impossible 
problem. 

After gold was discovered in Montana there was need 
of a road from the Oregon Trail to that country for the 
convenience of the miners and the settlers who WTre then 
headed toward the land of precious metal. To assist in this 
migration, the Bozeman Road was mapped out. This 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 183 

route was not a main highway Hke some of the other trails, 
but a branch road, running from Red Buttes on the Platte 
to Three Forks on the Missouri, going by the way of Fort 
Laramie north through Wyoming and west through Montana 
through Bozeman Pass. The road was named for John M. 
Bozeman, a frontiersman who came to Montana in the 
early years of the sixties and first traced the trail, and who 
was killed by Indians in the Yellowstone Valley. The pretty 
town of Bozeman, Montana, Bozeman Creek, and Bozeman 
Pass, the one used by Clark on his homeward journey, also 
perpetuate his memory. Long before this road was con- 
structed the Crow Indians very bitterly resented the inva- 
sion by white men of their country, in which were plenty 
of antelope, buffalo and deer, w41d berries, and grass for 
their horses. All of the earlier travelers spoke in the most 
glowing terms of this beautiful land. It was not to be won- 
dered at that the Indians hated to see any first step taken 
that would in the end deprive them of their ancestral hunt- 
ing-ground. The Crow chief, Arapooish, told the govern- 
ment authorities that his tribe would not peacefully permit 
any invasion upon their land, and would war with the white 
men if he tried to inhabit their territory. 

The Crows had already lost some of these lands to the 
Sioux tribe. For seventy years these Crow stoutly defended 
their lands from the Sioux, but finally by force of numbers 
the Sioux swxpt them out of all the choicer parts and sent 
them to skulk in the mountains or to seek refuge among 
their relatives, the Assiniboines of Canada. The Sioux, 
in turn, warned the whites that they would resist to the 
death any attempt to make a highway of these fine hunting- 
grounds, and it was found necessary to establish military 
posts to protect travel over the Bozeman Road. Fort 
Reno was established on Crazy Woman's Fork of Powder 
River, north of this, Fort Phil. Kearney was built on Piney 




MAP IV. THE LONG DRIVE AND THE BOZEMAN ROAD 
O O O O O The Long Drive. X X X X X The Bozeman Road. 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 185 

Creek, another branch of the Powder River, and still farther 
north on the Big Horn the government erected Fort C. F. 
Smith, the first two forts being in Wyoming, the last in 
Montana. 

Brady says : ''There never was such a post as Fort Kearney 
for real trouble. It was in a state of siege for the two years 
of its existence; war parties hidden in the woods and moun- 
tain passes constantly kept their eyes on the post, so that 
no one was safe outside of the stockade. The Indians 
attacked wagons and trains, stampeded the cattle, and ran 
doTvn detached parties from the garrison. If grass was 
to Le mown for the horses, or wood to be cut for the post it 
all had to be done under a heavy guard, and althcpjgh the 
country was full of wild game there was no hunter that 
dared venture beyond the camp for fear of the silent and 
hidden red man."^ The mountain men had learned that 
when the Indians were not to be seen they were the most 
dangerous. Bridger always said: ''Whar you don't see no 
Injuns there they's sartin to be thickest." 

In order to complete Fort Phil. Kearney it was necessary 
for the wood-choppers to go to the heavy timber for logs, 
though not a day passed when the Indians did not appear 
and attack the little detachment of workers. One day 
Colonel Fetterman with eighty-one men went out from the 
fort to protect the wood train. As Fetterman approached 
the place where the choppers were at work, the Indians 
attacked the soldiers and then fell back over Lodge Pole 
Ridge, with Fetterman and his men after them, though the 
express command had been given by Colonel Carrington, 
the commandant at the Fort, that if an attack was made 
no one should cross the ridge. 

Immediately after Fetterman disappeared over the fatal 

1 Indian Fights and Fighters. Copyright, 1904. McClure, Phillips 
&Co. 



186 THE PATHBREAKERS 

ridge the fort people heard heavy firmg, and Lieutenant 
Ten Eyck with fifty-four men hurried to the rehef. But 
when the detachment crossed the ridge not one white man 
was found aUve. Eighty-one mutilated bodies, killed by 
bullets, arrows, hatchets, and spears, lay on the hillside where 
to-day stands the rough cobblestone monument by the stage 
road between Sheridan and Buffalo (Wyoming), commem- 
orating the slaughter of Fetterman and his brave men. On 
the shield of this monument may be traced these words: 

ON THIS FIELD ON THE 21ST DAY OF 

DECEMBER, 1866, 

THREE COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND 

SEVENTY-SIX PRIVATES 

OF THE 18tH U. S. INFANTRY AND OF THE 

2d U. S. CAVALRY AND FOUR CIVILIANS 
UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPTAIN BREVET- 
LIEUTENANT COLONEL WILLIAM FETTERMAN 
WERE KILLED BY AN OVERWHELMING 
FORCE OF SIOUX UNDER THE COMMAND OF 
RED CLOUD. 
THERE WERE NO SURVIVORS. 

Major Powell was in command of the men who were 
guarding the wood-cutters on the day of the wagon-box 
fight. This time the wood-cutters were getting timber to 
burn and were carrying it to the fort in wagons, the boxes 
of which were made of strong and thick wood.^ 

When the Sioux came on, three thousand strong, many of 
them well armed with the army muskets captured during 
the Fetterman fight, Powell and his men made a corral 
or fortification out of the wagon boxes. In these boxes the 
soldiers crowded, and from this vantage-point did their 
shooting. Not finding room for all to shoot from so small 
an enclosure, Powell selected the best shots to use the 

1 Some historians claim that these wagons were made with iron bot- 
toms. 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 



187 



rifles, and set the rest of the soldiers to loading the guns as 
fast as they were emptied. Time and again the Indians 
charged on the handful of men, only to be repulsed each time 
with heavy loss. The great chief, Red Cloud, wild with fury 







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FETTERMAX -MAS.SACIU: MONUMENT 

that his three thousand warriors could be so driven back by 
thirty men, led the charge in person. But Indians could not 
withstand such a fire as the little band poured forth. Even 
Red Cloud fled. This ended the fight. Powell lost three 
men; of the Sioux were killed or wounded at least eleven 



188 THE PATHBREAKERS 

hundred warriors. A sweet revenge for the Fetterman 
massacre ! 

After this battle Fort Phil. Kearney was abandoned by 
direction of the government. The Indians afterwards 
burned the hated buildings to the ground. 

''It was never reoccupied, and to-day is remembered 
simply because of its association with the first, and with 
one exception the most notable, of our Indian defeats in 
the West, and with the most remarkable and overwhelming 
victory that was won by soldiers over their gallant red foe- 
man on the same ground." ^ 



2. THE CHEYENNE UPRISING 

The Indians along the line of the Oregon Trail, between 
Council Bluffs and Fort Laramie, had very serious objections 
to the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad across their 
lands. When the Kansas Pacific was being constructed 
toward Denver, again the Indians arose and warned the 
white man that if it was railroad it also was war. Chief 
Roman Nose of the Cheyenne tribe, said: "This is the 
first time that I have ever shaken the white man's hand 
in friendship. If the railroad is continued I shall be his 
enemy forever." 

The Indians believed that they had been successful in 
their fights along the Bozeman Road, notwithstanding their 
heavy loss, because the government had abandoned the 
Powder River country, and Forts Reno, Phil. Kearney, and 
C. F. Smith. When the troops were withdrawn from these 
forts, the Indians rejoiced in their hearts and firmly believed 
that our government was afraid of them. This feeling of 
triumph over the white man gave other tribes encouragement 
and had much to do with the uprising of the Cheyenne tribe. 
1 Brady. Indian Fights and Fighters. 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 189 

We must admit that the government was not always 
without fault in its dealings with the natives. Treaties were 
easily made and as easily broken by the white man. Cer- 
tain tracts of land were portioned out for the hunting- 
grounds of the red man, to be taken back again when they 
seemed of special value. The Indians had an idea that a 
treaty once made was for all time, and they naturally 
insisted by force of arms upon the enforcement of the treaty. 
They also believed that the lands over which their fathers 
and fathers' fathers had roamed and hunted and trapped 
were theirs by right of inheritance. This mutual distrust 
existing between the red man and the white man is aptly 
illustrated by an incident. A missionary to the Indians on 
a certain occasion went to preach to one of the tribes. The 
white man wore a handsome fur coat which he took off 
just before he began his sermon. *' Where shall I put this 
to keep it safe?" said the bishop to a chief. The warrior at 
once replied, '^Put it right there on the snow, there is not 
white man within twenty-four hours' journey." 

''In the fall of 1866 the Cheyennes swept through western 
Kansas like a devastating storm. In one month they cut off, 
killed, or captured eighty-four different settlers, including 
women and children. They swept the country bare. Again 
and again different gangs of builders were wiped out, but 
the railroad went on. General Sheridan finally took the 
field in person, but with an inadequate force at his disposal." 
With Sheridan w^as a young cavalry officer, Colonel George 
A. Forsyth, who was eager to take command of some troops 
and go into the field in an active campaign against the 
Indians. With the permission of Sheridan he raised a com- 
pany of forty-nine scouts of the very best type of fighting 
men. In this company were hunters and trappers and 
veterans of the Civil War. Forsyth followed the trail of 
a large hostile band to the banks of the Arickaree and there 



190 THE PATHBREAKERS 

went into camp, intending to take up the pursuit again in 
the morning. But in the morning it was the Indians that 
did the pursuing. They surprised the camp, and, but for 
Forsyth's alertness, would have captured the entire force. 
As it was, they stampeded the pack-mules and compelled 
the little party to retreat to a small island in the river. Here 
shallow rifle pits were dug with bowie-knives and tin plates, 
and a warm reception was prepared for Roman Nose, who 
led on his warriors in person. They were seven hundred 
strong and held both banks of the river, from which they 
poured a galling fire upon the devoted fifty. This killed 
every one of the cavalry horses, whose bodies were used as 
a rampart, and whose flesh was eaten raw by Forsyth's 
men during this long fight. 

Forsyth himself was shot in the thigh, again in the leg, 
and still later in the head, but he fought till relief came, like 
the hero he was. Roman Nose finally determined to end 
all with a charge which he led in person. He was a great 
leader, and he led not one but six good charges, probably the 
best ever made by Indians. Up the almost dry bed of the 
stream they came, well mounted, yelling like demons, and 
led by their gigantio chief, who shook aloft a rifle captured 
in the Fetterman massacre, and swore that he would add to 
it the rifles of all those opposing him that day. But he never 
got those rifles, nor did he need them evermore, for after 
performing wonders of bravery, bringing his undisciplined 
followers to the very muzzles of the guns again and again, 
rallying them after each disastrous charge and inspiring 
them with something of his own courageous spirit, he fell 
in the sixth charge, literally shot to pieces. 

The Indians fell back wailing over the loss of their chief. 
When the smoke of battle had cleared away it was found 
that twenty-one of the fortj-nine whites could no longer 
do service. Some were dead, others disabled. 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 191 

There was nothing to eat except the raw meat of the dead 
horses who had so long been exposed to the hot sun that 
their carcasses were in a horrible state. But here the com- 
pany held its ground for eight days, besieged by the Indians 
until succor came from Fort Wallace, whither Forsyth had 
sent two volunteers, under cover of night after the first 
day's battle. On the sixth day Forsyth assembled his men, 
and advised those who were well enough to leave the island 
to leave it and to endeavor to get to Fort Wallace, while he 
and the rest of the wounded would run chances of escape. 
Not one would go. They would hve or die with their 
comrades. Does Thermopylae's defense deserve eternal 
commemoration any more than this of Forsyth and his 
gallant forty-nine on the Arickaree? 

The Cheyenne war was ended by Colonel George A. 
Custer, sometimes called by the Indians ''The White Chief 
with the Yellow Hair," and sometimes ''Long Hair." In 
the dead of winter, with the thermometer at zero and deep 
snow on the ground, Custer marched with his regiment to 
the frozen waters of the Washita, surprised in camp the 
worst band of the Cheyennes, led by Black Kettle, and 
charged them so fiercely that the few who survived were 
glad to surrender. After the destruction of this band the 
others came in, surrendered, and were sent back on the 
reservation, where they behaved fairly well for six years. 



3. THE APACHES 

When we acquired title to New Mexico, through the 
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, we also fell heir to the 
Apache tribe of Indians, who roamed in what is now New 
Mexico and Arizona. The Apache had a cruel face, was 
brutal and fiendish to an unusual degree. While the Sioux 
was brutal, he was willing to fight in the open. The Apache 



192 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



was a lurking skulker whom General Crook called " sl tiger 
of the human species." 

Ever since the white man had gone into the region of the 
Apache there had been war and massacre of women and 

children. In 
1871 General 
George Crook 
was put in com- 
mand of this 
department with 
orders to tame 
these fierce abo- 
rigines. This 
officer had won 
his spurs as an 
Indian fighter in 
other fields, and 
had definite 
ideas with regard 
as to how to 
handle Indians. 
He beheved that 
the Apaches 
should be placed 
on a reservation 
and made to 
stay there and 
earn their living. 
He further believed that temporizing should be abandoned 
and an energetic campaign waged against the tribe. 

Crook was a just and true friend of the Indian, but at the 
same time was an able and clear-headed officer. His first 
work was to call the Apache chiefs together and tell them 
that if they wished to stay on the warpath it meant exter- 




GENERAL GEORGE CROOK 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 193 

mination; that civilization and the white man were coming 
into the territory over which the native hmitecl; and that 
it would be to the advantage of both white man and native 
to establish peace. 

Then Crook offered them protection if they would sur- 
render and settle down on the lands allotted to them by the 
government. Many of the Indians accepted the terms and 
peacefully surrendered, but others refused, and, led by 
Geronimo, carried on for years a war of surprisal, ambuscade, 
and sudden retreat that taxed Crook's resources to the 
utmost. It was in this war that General Leonard Wood, 
now chief of staff of our army, first won distinction. The 
lamented Lawton, whose gallant service and untimel}^ death 
in the Philippines are fresh in the memory of us all, was 
also one of Crook's best officers. 

The Apaches were a difficult tribe to subdue, owing to 
their bravery, treachery, and endurance. General Crook 
tells about an Apache whom he saw run for fifteen hundred 
feet up the side of a mountain without any sign of fatigue. 
A band of these Indians could ambush a party of white 
men on the open prairie where there was not a blade of 
grass, a cactus, or a stone behind which to hide. They 
would burrow down into the sand until their bodies were 
all covered and there remain motionless until the white 
man came almost upon them. 

They WTre familiar with the country, ''which they knew 
as well as if they had made it themselves.'' They knew every 
ravine, pass, valley, or canon in New Mexico and Arizona, 
and could find hidden places inaccessible and unknown to 
the soldiers. A great difficulty in the way of their capture 
was that when they were close pressed, they would not all 
take flight in the same direction, but would scatter to all 
points of the compass until no two were in the same place. 

Crook was called north to fight the Sioux before he had 



194 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



put the finishing touches to the Apache war. General 
Miles has the distinction of having ended this long war 
after he had already ended the Nez Perce and Sioux 
wars in the north. Miles was one of the greatest In- 
dian fighters we 
ever had. After 
a final whipping 
from Miles, Ger- 
onimo came into 
camp, boasting 
that it was the 
fourth time he 
had surrendered 
to the white 
man. Miles saw 
to it that he 
never surren- 
dered again, for 
he sent him and 
the worst of his 
band to Florida. 
Geronimo never 
saw his beloved 
mountains again, 
though he was 
finally permitted 
to settle on the 
little Apache 
reservation in Indian Territory and died there very recently. 
Geronimo's wars cost our government over one million 
dollars, much loss of life and many bloody combats. 

After the Apaches were sent away, Arizona and New 
Mexico drew many settlers to their sunny lands, a thing 
utterly impossible while the valleys were open to the sudden 





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GENERAL NELSON A. MILES 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 195 

and fierce raids of the natives, who may with justness be 
called the most cruel of all western Indians. 



4. THE SIOUX 

When the year 1876 came our government decided that 
all of the Indians in the Northwest must stay on reserva- 
tions that had been selected for them as homes. On the 
other hand, the Indians decided that they would roam and 
live where the hunting and fishing were the best. Now, 
when the government and the Indians did not agree upon 
any pohcy there was always trouble, and this case was no 
exception to the rule. The trouble at this time is known 
as the Sioux war, because Sitting Bull and his Sioux were 
most prominent, but the Cheyennes, too, were numerous 
in the hostile bands. The contested land on which the 
Indians determined to roam was encircled by forts and 
agencies. The Missouri River enclosed it on the east and 
north, on the south were the military posts along the line 
of the Union Pacific Railroad, to the west were the Rocky 
Mountains. 

Three lines of attack were planned against the Sioux 
to drive them from the hunting-grounds and to get them 
into their allotted reservations. One under General Gibbon 
from western Montana, one led by General Crook from the 
south, and one under General Terry from Fort Yankton, 
reinforced by Custer's cavalry from Fort Abraham Lincoln, 
near Bismarck. Our government believed that any one of 
these armies would be powerful enough to overcome the 
rebelHous Indians. But one fact had been overlooked; 
namely, that the Indians now had firearms of the highest 
grade, were w^ll supplied with ammunition, w^ere operating 
on interior lines, as the army man would phrase it, and had 
a thorough knowledge of the country. Besides, they were in 



196 THE PATHBREAKERS 

great force, numbering anywhere from four to eight thou- 
sand. In fact, the government had no suspicion that the 
uprising had become so formidable. 

General Crook had been called from his brilliant work 
against the Apaches of New Mexico and Arizona to help 
put down this uprising in the north. With his column, 
in the spring of 1876, he advanced north by way of the Boze- 
man Road, past the ruins of Fort Phil. Kearney to Tongue 
River, near the line between Wyoming and Montana. At 
the arrival of the soldiers in this territory, the Crows and 
the Shoshones, hereditary enemies of the Sioux, joined 
Crook's army, washing to have a hand in the annihilation of 
the common foe. The exact location of the enemy was not 
known, but the Sioux were supposed to be on the Big Horn, 
Rosebud, or Powder rivers. 

While Crook was going north, Terry with Custer moved 
up the Yellowstone to the present site of Miles City, and 
waited for the division under Gibbon to come from western 
Montana. Crook was the first to encounter the Sioux, 
who were led by Crazy Horse. It was in the valley of the 
Rosebud and the fight was long and fierce. Never had 
Crook seen Indians fight so desperately. In fact, the natives 
came very near making it a bloody defeat for this old Indian 
fighter. It was afterward learned that Crazy Horse had 
planned an ambush for Crook and had almost succeeded in 
his cunning design. Crook was finally obliged to retreat and 
wait for the other officers to appear upon the field. 

Now, Custer had not heard of Crook's attack and retreat 
when he found the enemy on the Little Big Horn, under the 
leadership of Gall, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. When 
Custer dashed into the camp of the Indians, he did not know 
the strength of the Indians' force, which in reality was of 
four to six thousand warriors; nor of the excellent firearms 
which they possessed. Moreover, Sitting Bull w^s there tg 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 



197 



plan the fight, while Crazy Horse and Gall were great leaders 
in battle. Custer divided his six hundred men into four 
unequal divisions, placing IVIajor Reno in the command of 
one, with instructions to attack the village at its lower end, 
while Custer 
should enter it 
farther up. Re- 
no's attack was 
a failure, though 
Custer did not 
know this and 
expected the 
support of Reno 
and his men 
when he made 
the attack. 

With two hun- 
dred sixty-two 
men of the Sev- 
enth Cavalry 
Custer dashed 
upon the In- 
dians. But he 
never came 
back, neither he 
nor any of his 
gallant band. 
With Custer fell 

his brothers. Captain Tom Custer and Boston Custer, 
Calhoun, his brother-in-law, and Autie Reed, his nephew. 
Michigan has erected a bronze monument in Monroe, the 
home tow^n of the Custers, to commemorate this day, fatal 
for the Custer family. 

The Custer fight practically ended the summer's campaign 




GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER 



198 THE PATHBREAKERS 

with the Sioux. While our soldiers were humiliated by their 
defeat, the Indians were amazingly puffed up. Now, they 
believed that they could whip the ''Big Knives" and drive 
the last white man off their lands. Those Indians who before 
were willing to remain on the reservation in quiet and peace 
now stole away to join the successful warriors; and the 
problem then confronting our government was how to keep 
any of them on the reservation. 

General Wesley Merritt with the Fifth Cavalry was on his 
way to reinforce Crook when he received word that some 
thousands of Cheyennes had left the reservation at the Red 
Cloud Agency and were hurrying to join the triumphant 
Indians. Merritt had for his chief of scouts Buffalo Bill 
(William Cody), who knew the country as well as any of the 
Indians. His first move was toward the north to head off 
the Indians at War Bonnet Creek. Buffalo Bill was riding 
ahead with fifteen scouts when he met the advance guard 
of the Indians. Yellow Hand, their chief, rode out ahead 
and challenged Bill to a duel, saying: ''I know you 
Pa-he-haska (Long Hair). If you want to fight come and 
fight me." 

At full tilt these two warriors galloped toward each other 
and fired. Yellow Hand was shot in the leg and his horse 
killed, but at the same time Buffalo Bill's horse fell. Only 
twenty paces apart they fired again. The Indian fell, the 
white man was unhurt. Buffalo Bill, snatching the war- 
bonnet from the head of the dead chief, and waving it above 
his head yelled, ''The first scalp for Custer." This was 
the only blood shed in that raid. The Cheyennes submitted 
to be driven back on the reservation, and Merritt went on 
and joined Crook in his camp on Big Goose Creek, near the 
present Sheridan, Wyoming. 

During the winter General Crook defeated American 
Horse at Slim Buttes, and forced all of the bands under his 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 199 

command to surrender. Then General Miles built a canton- 
ment opposite the mouth of Tongue River, near the present 
site of Miles City, Montana, and executed a well-planned 
campaign. In the dead of winter, with snow deep on the 
ground and the thermometer at zero, and sometimes away 
below. Miles raided the camps of the Indians, who had their 
quarters in the protected ravines of the Rosebud, Tongue, 
and Powder rivers. Crazy Horse made a stubborn fight 
but could not hold out against this unremitting warfare. 
One by one the bands came in and surrendered, until all 
save Sitting Bull's were back on the reservations. Sitting 
Bull fled to Canada, where he found safety. Later he 
returned to the United States, where, after hving a peaceful 
life for a few years, he was killed by an Indian policeman 
who was attempting to arrest the old chief by orders of 
one of our army officers. This was the last real war with the 
Sioux, though in the early nineties they made serious trouble 
at the Standing Rock and Wounded Knee Agencies in 
South Dakota, and for a time people in the West dreaded a 
return of the Sioux raids of 1862, when they killed thousands 
of settlers in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa; or the 
still worse Sioux war of 1876, when they fought our best 
western troops to a standstill. 



5. CHIEF JOSEPH 

The Nez Perce Indians had been at peace for many years. 
They were a peaceful tribe and made the boast that no white 
man's scalp had ever hung in their wigwams. This tribe 
had been given a home on the Lapwai reservation, just east 
of Lewiston, Idaho, which had been disdainfully declined 
by their chief, Joseph, who was determined to have this tribe 
return to the Wallowa Valley where their people had hved 
for generations. Joseph had a strong love for the soil of 



200 THE PATHBREAKERS 

his hereditary hunting-ground. Once in council he said, 
''A man who would not love the ground of his father and 
mother is worse than a beast." 

When in the summer of 1877 it became plain to Chief 
Joseph that he must go upon the reservation or fight, he 
chose the latter alternative. In two well planned battles 
he whipped the forces of General Howard, and then gather- 
ing all the Nez Perces that would follow him, men, women 
and children, he beat a masterly retreat. Eastward through 
Idaho he went, beating off the troops that hung on his skirts 
and killing settlers here and there. Encumbered as he was 
with numbers of non-combatants and much baggage, yet 
he won through Lolo Pass without loss, thus crossing the 
Bitter Root range at the very point made famous by the 
memory of Lewis and Clark. He emerged into the Bitter 
Root Valley a short distance south of the present pretty town 
of Missoula and here turned south. This was his great 
mistake. Had he turned north, though Hell Gate Canon, 
the war trail of the Flatheads and Blackfeet, nothing could 
have hindered his escape to Canada, where Sitting Bull had 
found a refuge the previous year. It may be that he was 
not yet ready to admit that he must expatriate himself so 
completely from the land of his fathers. It cannot be that 
he was afraid of the feeble garrison at Fort Owen in this 
same Bitter Root Valley, for he brushed contemptuously 
by them in his flight to the south. General Gibbon gathered 
a force, pursued him, and pounced upon him in the valley of 
the Big Horn not far from the present Dillon, Montana. 
But Joseph was no ordinary chief and his were no ordinary 
Indians. They hurled back Gibbon as they had hurled 
back Howard and got clear away with smaller loss than 
their adversaries sustained. Now, with both Howard and 
Gibbon on his rear, Joseph went over the mountains again 
into Idaho, eastward into Wyoming, through Yellowstone 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 



201 



Park, killing most of the tourists, who even in those early days 
were there in surprisingly large numbers; and then, seeming 
to resign himself to the inevitable, he turned north and be- 
gan a race through Montana in the hope to reach Canada; 
and for all Gibbon or Howard could have done he would 




WHERE THEY HAVE SNOW IN AUGUST. THE CONTINENTAL 
DIVIDE IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 

have reached it. But General Miles with his seasoned Indian 
fighters was away east on the Yellowstone, lying in canton- 
ment at Miles City. To him came an express from Colonel 
Sturgis, who had been closest on the trail of Joseph all the 
way through Yellowstone Park. The great Indian fighter 
set out at once for the Missouri, to cut off the great Indian 
leader. It was a fierce race, but the white man won. At 
Bear Paw Mountain, scarcely two days' march from the 



202 THE PATHBREAKERS 

Canada line, he forced Joseph to give battle, and a real battle 
it was. The Indians stood at bay so fiercely that Miles 
failed in several attempts to storm their position. He was 
in serious difficulty, for any moment might bring Sitting 
Bull and his bands, who were not far away in Canada. But 
the forces of Hunger, Cold, and Fatigue fought on the side 
of the white man. On the fourth day Joseph surrendered, 
saying: ''It is cold and we have no blankets. The little 
children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, 
have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food. 
No one knows where they are, — perhaps freezing to death. 
I want to have time to look for my children and to see how 
many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among 
the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! My heart is sick and sad. 
From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.'* 
And he never did. 

Poor old Joseph. They sent him up into Washington on 
the Fort Colville reservation. Up to very recent years the 
old man could be seen there brooding over the fire and 
saying no word to anyone. Who can say what mournful 
pictures he saw in the flames? The lands of his fathers 
gone, his braves sacrificed for naught, his wonderful retreat 
of no avail, his people scattered and impoverished. Yet in 
spite of his failure, Chief Joseph deserves a lasting place in 
history. No one can deny him the title, ''The Indian 
Xenophon." 

6. THE UTAH INDIANS 

The Mormons believed that it was cheaper to feed the 
Indians than to fight them. Carrying out this policy, they 
gave the Indians lessons in agriculture, taught them to plow 
the land and to raise crops. Notwithstanding all of this, 
the Utes again and again broke out in open hostility, and to 
this day you can see in Salt Lake City, Ephraim, Manti, and 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 203 

many of the towns remains of the old rubble walls that were 
built as fortifications. 

It was during the year 1853-54 that one of the fiercest 
conflicts raged, at which time many lives were lost, many 
inhuman acts committed, and a great deal of property was 
destroyed. This war was called the *' Walker War" because 
it was led by Chief Walker. This chief was a great favorite 
^vith the Indians because he was athletic, a prime shot, and 
could speak not only many native languages, but Spanish 
and Enghsh. ^' When he used to go forth to battle, he dressed 
in a suit of finest broadcloth cut in the latest fashion, and 
donned a cambric shirt and a beaver hat. Over this costume 
he wore his gaudy Indian trappings.'' 

When the Mormons first came to his country Chief 
Walker gave them a hand of welcome and helped them select 
many choice pieces of land. But when he saw his choice 
hunting-grounds turned into farms, and the game being 
rapidly driven from the lands, he raised his hand against 
the white man and attempted to drive him from the country. 
After frequent massacres of the passing emigrants and 
settlers a treaty was made estabhshing temporary peace. 

Many Indian outbreaks occurred between 1857 and 1862, 
no real curb being placed on the natives until General Conner 
with his volunteers, early in 1863, successfully fought the 
Shoshones and Bannocks, led by Big Hunter, Pocatello, and 
Sanptich. These tribes had killed and robbed the emigrants 
and plundered the overland mail route until conditions 
became unbearable. In the battle of Bear River, though the 
cold was intense and the snow was so deep that he could 
not use his cannon, Conner almost annihilated the Indians. 
This defeat checked their fighting spirit and the good results 
of the battle were immediately felt, particularly throughout 
northern Utah, where cattle and horses were now safe and 
settlements could be made ^vithout fear. 



204 THE PATHBREAKERS 

For two years, 1865-67, Chief Blackhawk waged an ugly- 
war against the settlers in southern Utah. So widespread 
became the alarm that many of the settlers abandoned their 
farms and homes and left the district in possession of the 
natives. The volunteers and miUtia, who served for two 
years without pay, did valiant service, and pensions are still 
granted to those Blackhawk veterans. 

The Shoshones and Bannocks finally agreed to a treaty in 
1863, whereby they received an annuity for a term of twenty 
years. The Utes also entered into an agreement with the 
government in which they rehnquished all claim to their 
lands and agreed to hve on the reservation, where they 
received large money annuities, dwelling houses, cattle, 
farms, and schools. Chief Blackhawk went with his tribe 
and settled down to the peaceful duties of a farmer. 



7. THE MODOCS 

The most costly war that the United States ever had, 
considering the small numbers engaged in it, was the Modoc 
war of 1872. The Modocs are a branch of the Klamath 
tribe, who killed Smith's men and Fremont's men, and when 
the Modoc w^ar began they were living near Klamath Lake. 
This was a beautiful country and it was agony for the Modocs 
to give it up and remove to the reservation picked out for 
them by the government; but they did it, and seemed 
resolved to make the best of a hard case. But the reservation 
was too small. The Indians already there, Klamaths chiefly, 
resented the intrusion, taunting them with the epithet 
"outcasts," and telling them that they were too poor to 
have a reservation of their own, so they had to live on the 
land belonging to another tribe. This angered the Modocs 
and they deliberately went back to their former hunting- 
grounds near Klamath Lake. By this time the settlers 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 205 

had commenced to come into that region, and were building 
their homes and cultivating their land. Barbarous assaults 
were reported to the government, and petitions were sent to 
the Indian agents to have the hostile natives driven back to 
the reservation. 

At this time Brigadier-General Canby, stationed at 
Portland, had charge of all the Indians in that region. Now, 
Canby was a most fearless soldier, but he was also a just man 
and he saw that the Modocs had a cause for hostility. He 
tried to have a special reservation set aside for them, but 
could not accomphsh it, and received orders to make the 
Indians go to the Klamath reservation. He was ordered to 
remove them, ''Peacefully if you can, forcibly if you must." 

A command was then issued for the arrest of Captain 
Jack, Black Jim, and Scarfaced Charley, who were camped 
with about fifty warriors on Lost River, not far from Tule 
Lake. The troops completely surprised Captain Jack and 
his braves, who immediately opened fire, which was rapidly 
returned. After a few were killed on both sides the Indians, 
with their women and children, fled to the lava-beds south of 
Tule Lake. 

These lava-beds had been the natural roaming grounds of 
the Modocs, and they knew them better than any one else. 
Indeed, no white man knew anything about them. The 
lava-beds were of a most peculiar formation, due to volcanic 
action. When the soldiers looked over the mass, which 
was eight miles long and about four miles wide, the entire 
surface looked hke a level stretch of land covered with 
sagebrush; but upon a close examination the ground was 
found to be much broken, with rocky ridges, and many caves 
and hollows from ten to twenty feet high. These occurred 
in groups with parallel lines, re-entrant angles, natural 
bastions, and enfilading trenches, making a fortification, 
built wholly by nature, more ingenious and effective than 



206 THE PATHBREAKERS 

any ever devised by the best military engineers. These 
ridges were spHt open at the top, leaving a space five to eight 
feet wide in which a man could walk or crawl from rampart 
to rampart without being seen. No wonder that Captain 
Jack boasted that his little band could stand off a thousand 
soldiers. He and his men knew every rock, the soldiers 
knew nothing of the country. 

Into this natural fortress, Captain Jack took his eighty 
warriors, ammunition, food, women, and children. Once 
there with abundance of good water, he was able to beat off 
any ordinary attack, and the region was too extensive to 
permit of any effective siege with the small force at General 
Wheaton's disposal. General Frank Wheaton, an officer 
of much experience, had several troops of cavalry and infan- 
try, two companies of Oregon volunteers and one of the 
Cahfornia Volunteer Riflemen. All of one day soldiers 
walked over the lava-beds, scarcely seeing an Indian. " They 
stumbled blindly forward over rocks ranging in size from a 
cobblestone to a church with points like needles and edges 
like razors." Suddenly smoke would be seen from the side 
of some rock and a soldier would fall; but a return volley 
only hit the rocks. 

The situation was reported to Canby, who still insisted 
that peace should be made and the Indians given a new 
reservation. He now took the field in person, but before 
proceeding to extremities tried once more what could be 
done through negotiating. A peace conference was then 
had through the interpreter Riddle, who had with him a 
Modoc squaw wife. This squaw, Tobe, had a kindly feehng 
for the white men and warned them against the treachery 
of the Modocs; but Boston Charley and Bogus Charley had 
come to General Canby saying that Captain Jack wanted to 
surrender and wished to make terms before a peace commis- 
sion. Jack sent word that he and five of his warriors, all 



THE SOLDIER AND THE SETTLER 207 

unarmed, would meet the white men in a tent set up half 
way between the opposing forces. Canby and four men with 
Riddle and Tobe went to the council-tent, though the squaw 
all the time protested and declared that they would all be 
murdered. Soon after the conference began it was plain 
that treachery was in the hearts of the Indians, but relying 
upon coolness and audacity to carry them through, counting 
rather too much upon the trained power of the white man 
to awe the wild red man, Canby spoke with as much authority 
as if he had the whole United States army there. Suddenly 
at the signal, *'At-tux" (All ready), the Indians drew their 
concealed revolvers and fired, then fled. General Canby 
and two of the men were killed, one of the men with Riddle 
escaping. The squaw was knocked down, but was finally 
rescued by one of her own tribe. 

Additional troops w^re soon sent over the lava-beds, but 
the enemy had fled, though at one time Captain Jack was 
seen wearing Canby's uniform. Out in the open, they were 
finally run to earth by the cavalry, so tired and weary that 
Jack said, when they found him sitting on a log, ''My legs 
have given out." 

In a military trial Captain Jack and four of his braves 
were found guilty of murder and were hanged. 

The Modoc war cost the government half a million of 
dollars, the lives of one hundred and sixty-eight white 
soldiers and one of the best and bravest officers that ever 
graced our army. Yet it must be remembered that Captain 
Jack was a chief who was firmly opposed to war, and that 
at the beginning of the Modoc conflict the Indians were in 
the right and were driven by bad faith and injustice to des- 
peration, with which one might sympathize. 



208 THE PATHBREAKERS 



REFERENCES 

Carrington. Army Life on the Plains. 

Forsyth. The Story of the Soldier. 

Hansen. The Conquest of the Missouri. 

Brady. Indian Fights and Fighters. 

Finerty. War Path and Bivouac. 

Miles. Personal Recollections. 

Brady. Northwestern Fights and Fighters. 

Cody. True Tales of the Plains. 

Custer. Life on the Plains. 

Wood. Lives of Famous Chiefs. 

Bancroft. History of Utah. 

McLaughlin. My Friend the Indian. 

Whitney. History of Utah. 

Paxson. The Last of the American Frontier. 

Boyles. The Spirit Trail. 

MoBeth. The Nez Perce Indians since Lewis and Clark. 



CHAPTER VIII 

cows AND COWBOYS 

1. The Long Drive 2. The Cowboy 

1. THE LONG DRIVE 

A new industry came to the Great West coincident with 
the coming of the settler. After the miUtary men had sub- 
dued the Indians, and the government had placed them on 
reservations, there were three classes demanding certain 
kinds of provision: the home-seeker, the wards of the gov- 
ernment, and the troops whose duty it was to see that the 
laws prohibiting the Indian from roaming where he willed 
were properly executed. Naturally the food most desired 
was meat. 

In the early days the buffalo furnished meat in plenty, 
but the wasteful habits of the white man and the professional 
skin-hunter soon led to its complete extermination. The 
Indian killed only what buffalo he needed for food and 
clothing, for he knew how closely his own welfare depended 
upon the preservation of this great game animal. Did not 
his sinews for bow-strings, war-shields, bed and bedding, 
wigwam and tepee, saddle and bridle, and his most nutri- 
tious food come from the buffalo? It was those who killed 
for the valuable skin, and those who destroyed for the love 
of the sport that drove the buffalo from the Indian's hunting- 
ground, and caused his extermination by wanton slaughter. 
The hunter and traveler who shot for sport only used the 
tongues and choice rumps, leaving the rest of the animal to 
rot on the plains. 

No exact estimate can be made of the actual number 

209 



210 THE PATHBREAKERS 

of buffalo that roamed over the broad plains. This much is 
known, that during the years between 1868 and 1881 there 
was expended in the state of Kansas alone the sum of two 
and one half million dollars for buffalo bones that had been 
gathered from the prairies. These bones were utilized by the 
various carbon works of the country, and represented at 
least thirty one milhon buffalo.^ 

The number of animals that moved in one great company 
was actually countless. In 1868 Sheridan and his officers 
rode for three days through one continuous herd, and in 
1869 a Kansas Pacific train was delayed from nine o'clock 
in the morning until five o'clock in the evening in order to 
allow buffalo to cross the track. We read of one herd that 
covered an area seventy by thirty miles. 

As the supply of buffalo meat decreased, herds of tame 
cattle appeared to supply the deficiency. The extreme 
Southwest around the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico 
has had wild cattle ranging on the native grass since the 
"mind of man runneth not." Tradition does not hesitate 
to attribute the presence of ''cows" in this southern region 
to the coming of Cortez with shiploads of men, provision, and 
cattle. However that may be, we find the original home of 
the great ranchmen in the lands of southern Texas and 
eastern Mexico. From this locality cattle were brought to 
the Northwest as far as Montana, Nevada, and even to the 
most northern boundary of the United States. 

This movement began doubtless for the same reasons as 
the annual migration of the buffalo occurred. Spring comes 
early in the sunny southland. Here the fresh green grass 
first appeared, and here grazing began earhest. Just as the 
buffalo slowly ate his way northward all summer, moving 
constantly toward the land where the summer days were 
cooler and the herbage was fresher, constantly away from 

^ Inman. 



cows AND COWBOYS 211 

the land where the fierce summer sun scorched the grass and 
dried up the water holes, so the domestic herds, guided by 
their cowboy attendants, grazed northward throughout 
the summer. Fall found them far north in Wyoming or 
Montana, where they would be sold to stock the ranches 
springing up there, or to supply meat to the thriving towns 
of the northland. This was the ''Long Drive," one of the 
most picturesque features of hfe in the Great West of a 
generation ago. 

After going over the tableland of western Texas, the trail 
continued north through the Indian country into Kansas, 
crossing the old Santa Fe Trail at Dodge. When this point 
was reached the cowman felt that the first half of the long 
journey was completed. Here many of the cattle, some- 
times an entire herd, would be sold after the Kansas & 
Pacific, building west, came to furnish quick transportation 
to eastern markets. As the railroads pushed gradually west- 
ward new towns sprang up and became emporiums for the 
cattle trade. Thus Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge 
City, Hays City, Ogalalla, and Cheyenne became in turn 
notorious. At the western terminus of the railroad the trail 
of the cowboy cut the trail of the railroad man. It was 
Tartar meeting Hun. The cowboy had money to spend, for 
his herd had been sold and he had been paid off. The railroad 
gang had frequent pay days. Both were thirsty souls and 
red liquor was handy. The cowboy was more expert with 
the revolver, but the construction crews in those days were 
generally Irish, and terrible men with their fists. Besides, 
they could generally reckon on the support of the gamblers 
and roughs, who followed the railroad, and who could pull 
a gun with celerity and use it with deadly precision. In most 
of those towns, which a generation ago were on the frontier, 
the oldest graves are those of men who ''died with their 
boots on." 



212 THE PATHBREAKERS 

After crossing the headwaters of the Solomon up past 
Fort Hays and over the RepubHcan, the next stop was on 
the South Platte where, not far west of its junction with the 
main river, was a large cow camp, Ogalalla, the rendezvous 
of the cowboys and the Texas rangers. This was a typical 
frontier town, — outfitting place for the cowman, a home 
of the border ruffian, and a Monte Carlo for the gambler. 
If there were fifty houses in the town, forty of them would 
be saloons, gambling dens, and dance-halls. This frontier 
place was a town of no night, for after the sun went down the 
harvest from all kinds of lawlessness and crime was reaped. 
These were the times that tried the souls of law-abiding 
citizens. Some thrilling instances of daring in defense of 
order are embalmed in the records of these towns; and fore- 
most among the names of many brave and capable police 
officers stands that of James B. Hickock, better known as 
Wild Bill. Now, Wild Bill was a marksman of note even for 
the frontier, and no man could pull a gun quicker. At the 
first election in Hays City, Kansas, he was chosen marshal. 
No desperado that disputed his authority lived to repent it. 
He was the terror of evil-doers. Members of the McCandlass 
gang once leagued together to put him out of the way when 
he was a station guard on the mail route, and at one time a 
roomful attacked Wild Bill alone. When the smoke had 
cleared away it was found that ten men had been killed, 
and Wild Bill had received three bullets, several buckshot, 
and numerous knife cuts. It took him six months to recover, 
but after this he was reputed to bear a charmed life. He, 
too, died with his boots on, but the shot that killed him 
came from behind. He is buried in the cemetery at Dead- 
wood, South Dakota, and a simple shaft of fine workmanship 
marks his final resting-place. 

Not all of the cattle were sold at the railroad towns. 
Many went on to stock the ranches of Wyoming and Mon- 



cows AND COWBOYS 213 

tana. From Ogalalla the drive was along the Platte over 
the Oregon Trail to Fort Laramie. Many long drives had 
to be made in Wyoming without water, and part of this 
drive was over the Bozeman Road. Part of the time the 
trail skirted the Black Hills, and again went to the west into 
the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains. The headwaters 
of the Powder and the Tongue, the hunting-grounds of the 
Crows and Sioux, the home of the trappers and the scene of 
many a conflict with the Indians, were now marked by the 
trail of the cow. Thus came the newer civiHzation, the 
next step in a great western development. 

When Frenchman's Ford was reached, at the junction 
of the Big Horn with the Yellowstone, where trappers' post 
and soldiers' fort had held sway each in its turn, another 
fringe of civilization was reached, — the first since leaving 
Ogalalla. Here were to be found the Indian, the gambler, 
the trader, the cowboy, and the railroad surveyor, for the 
Northern Pacific was about to tap this wilderness as the 
Kansas Pacific and the Union Pacific had done farther south. 
The most marked difference between these frontier men of 
the North and those of the South was that in place of 
wearing one six-shooter at their belts they wore two ! 

After trailing along the tributaries of the Yellowstone to 
the north, the rest of the Long Drive was north and west 
until the Missouri was reached, when the Lewis and Clark 
trail was followed to Maria's River. The country of the 
Blackfeet was again invaded; this time in a peaceful manner 
because the tribe had been subdued and placed on a reserva- 
tion. The herd now entered the old hunting-grounds where 
the buffalo had roamed and the beaver had made his dam. 
It took five months to come from the plains of Texas to the 
ranges of Montana over the open prairie and through the 
foothills. Sometimes the cattle had different destinations, 
for Wyoming, Nebraska, and Idaho received their share of 



214 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



the southern stock. This easy, definite movement toward 
the north was not an experiment : it was a permanent step 
toward the occupation of those regions where only a few 
years before the buffalo and antelope had eaten of the 
nutritious grass, and quenched their thirst from the streams 




THE COWBOY AND COWPONY 

of pure, sweet water. In the year of 1871 over a half-million 
cattle were brought north over the Long Drive. 

"It was a strong tremendous movement, this migration 
of the cowmen and their herds, undoubtedly the greatest 
pastoral movement in the history of the world. It came with 
a rush and a surge, and in ten years it had subsided. That 
decade was an epoch in the West; the City of Cibola began. 
The strong men of the plains met and clashed and warred 
and united and pushed on. What a decade that was ! What 
must have been the men who made it what it was ! It was an 



cows AND COWBOYS 215 

iron country, and upon it came men of iron, — dauntless, 
indomitable. Each time they took a herd north they saw 
enough of life to fill in vivid pages far more than a single 
book. They met the ruffians and robbers of the Missouri 
border, and overcame them. They met the Indians, who 
sought to extort toll from them, fought and beat them. 
Worse than all these, they met the desert and the flood, 
and overcame them also. Worse yet than these, they met the 
repelling forces of an entire chmatic change, the silent 
enemies of other latitudes. These, too, they overcame. The 
kings of the range divided the kingdom of free grass. "^ 



2. THE COWBOY 

At one time in our history New Mexico, part of Arizona, 
Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and the western part of 
Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas had their wide 
areas devoted to stock-raising^ and this was the only industry 
carried on in those regions, except in the mountains where 
there was more or less of mining. During this period of our 
development the cattlemen and their cov/boys were the 
barons of the plains, and ruled over their domains with the 
branding-iron and the lariat. 

The cowmen, although distinctly a product of the South, 
in many cases did not return to the original home of the 
cattle, but stayed in the North and made their homes upon 
the prairies. This cowman was the connecting link between 
the frontiersman and the settler. The fence has placed the 
cowboy in past history. He reigns no more. The buffalo 
has been driven to the zoological garden, the Indian to the 
reservation, and the cowboy to the ''Wild West Shows" and 
''bucking bronco contests." The open range has given way 

1 Hough. The Story of the Cowboy. Copyright, 1897. D. 
Appleton & Co. 



216 THE PATHBREAKERS 

to the irrigated farm, and the cowboy is speedily being 
obHged to abandon his free, happy, and independent hfe to 
be placed in history with the explorer, the trader, the 
trapper, and the early pioneer. But you cannot make a 
farmer of the cowboy. He has tried it without success. He 
is as uneasy in a new environment as the English cabby is 
with the gasoline automobile. 



«; 



i^^ 




A BUCKING BRONCO. "SILVER CITY" MASTERED 

When the cattle business was in its prime, the stock lived 
on the open plains, summer and winter, without any food 
but the grass as it grew on the ground; without shelter 
except from the hills and short sagebrush. No attempt 
was made to feed or shelter the animals during the days of 
snow and killing winds. The cows ''rustled " for themselves, 
usually weathering through the cold, short days without 
much loss of life. But when an unusually severe winter 
came to the plains, the loss of live-stock was very heavy, 



I 



I 



cows AND COWBOYS 217 

hundreds and even thousands of the cattle perishing during 
a three days' bhzzard. Gradually the stockmen realized that 
it was dollars in their pocket to protect and feed this stock 
properly during a part of the season. Coincident with this 
realization came the irrigating ditch and its water to turn 
the prairies into hay-fields. To-day the meadow is as indis- 
pensable to the stockman as the horse was to the cowboy. 

The dugout, the hut, the shack, the cabin, the sod house, 
and the ranch have all been the home of the cowboy, ''his 
special geographical location determining the architecture 
of his dwelling-place." Yet the latch-string of these homes 
was always hanging out for the stranger, who found a hearty 
welcome, and plenty of beans, coffee, bacon, and hot bread, 
for which no pay was ever expected or accepted. 

Every class of men was represented by the ''Cow-puncher." 
It is a very mistaken idea that to be a cowboy one had to 
be a border ruflSan. It is true that many a man deliberately 
drifted west to be forgotten or to forget, for the etiquette 
of the plains forbade the asking of one's past history. The 
cowboy was accepted for what he was, and if he did not 
fit into his new calling, he soon found it out and sought 
other fields. 

Clothes did not make the man, neither were they his un- 
doing. Young men from the best families of the East came 
to the plains, seeking the freedom of a western life, to learn 
the business in which their fathers or relatives had invested 
their capital. Graduates from our best colleges lost their 
identity on the democratic prairies, and became cowboys 
among the cowboys. 

When fashion decreed in 1836, a really great date in our 
western history, that the beaver hat must be discarded for 
another style, it hit a killing blow at the calling of the 
trapper and the hunter. The cowboy has never suffered 
from the change of fashion or style of dress. As he was in 



218 THE PATHBREAKERS 

the South in his early days so he was yesterday. There was no 
part of the cowboy's dress that had not been adopted with 
thought of utility. He wore what he did because it best 
served his life and his purpose. His shirt was always open 
at the neck, around which he wore a bright silk handkerchief, 
carefully knotted, to keep off the sun and keep out the dust 
— the more brilliant the neckwear the prouder the possessor. 
It would be difficult to describe his coat, because he seldom 
wore one except in winter, and then not always. His vest 
he never wore buttoned, as he had a theory that he would 
take cold if he did. The cowboys ''chaps," a word cut 
down from the Spanish chaparejosare might easily be called 
the distinctive part of his dress. These ''overalls" are two 
wide trouser legs fastened to a leather and much buckled 
belt. They are made of leather and serve to protect the 
legs of the rider when he goes through underbrush and from 
the winds and storms of both winter and summer. Most 
fantastic are some of the chaps, made from the skin of the 
black bear or the beautiful angora goat, while others are of 
plain leather with a fringe of the same material running from 
the hip to the foot. These garments are loose, flapping 
things that give perfect freedom to the cowboy on his bronco. 
But there was one part of the cowboy's dress that was 
always tight, and here he showed his vanity. These were his 
high-topped boots with their narrow high heels and thin soles. 
His toes were so cramped that he did not walk naturally 
but with a hobbling gait, but then the cowboy did not 
pride himself on his walk, — on the contrary, he was proud 
that he did not walk. The cowboy would rather have 
searched for a horse and taken the trouble to saddle it than 
walk a fraction of a mile. He rode anything, but he never 
walked. His high-heeled boots were evolved from long 
experience. The high heels prevented the feet from slipping 
through the stirrup, and helped to hold the rider firmly in the 



cows AND COWBOYS 219 

saddle by the firm grip they took when the foot was thrust 
sohdly forward in the stirrup. So, after all, it may not have 
been vanity but a sense of fitness that made the cowboy 
adopt the high-heeled boots. 

The cowboy never rode without his fringed gauntlet 
gloves. These were worn to protect the hands from being 
burned by the rope, which he used so constantly and with 
such dexterity. 

When we consider the headgear, or ''bonnet," of the 
cowboy we have an article of dress that deserves more than 
passing notice, for so practical and serviceable has become 
this piece of wearing apparel that it has been universally 
adopted by men of the West. The ^'cowboy hat" is not a 
cheap, flimsy affair, but is made by the best hatters, and to 
possess "si genuine Stetson" is the chief delight of the 
cowboy. These wide-rimmed, light-colored felt hats must 
serve for all kinds of weather. Wind, rain, snow, and much 
wearing do not change their shape. They keep the head 
cool in summer and warm in winter. In fact they are the 
umbrella in the rain, the shade in the sun. 

Tied back of the saddle was the yellow oilskin raincoat, 
the ''sHcker of the cowboy." Through this the most driving 
rain or snow could penetrate. 

It is not difficult to understand why the cowboy adopted 
a costume so well adapted to his needs. It did not essen- 
tially change through the years that he adorned the range, 
because nothing else was devised that better met his needs 
or serve his purposes. 

The bridle, quirt, lariat, and saddle of the cowboy all show 
a wonderful skill in workmanship. They are made to last, 
and to do long hard service. The easy, broad saddle not 
only makes it possible for the cattlemen to remain unlimited 
hours on their ponies, but its great strength is a neces- 
sity in roping cattle, when one end of the rope is around 



220 THE PATHBREAKERS 

the steer's leg and the other end around the horn of the 
saddle. 

The revolver, once used for self-defense, came to be em- 
ployed chiefly to turn the herd when in a stampede, or to 
kill a wounded or disabled animal or to frighten cattle 
from the heavy brush. Although the cowboy of late years 
did not have much use for a revolver he became very expert 
and quick with firearms. 

The Spaniards brought not only their cows with them 
from the sunny South, but also much of their language, 
which the people of the plains have unconsciously adopted. 
From these men of the Southwest we have obtained not only 
the word ''chaps," but ''bronco" (rough or wild); "quirt" 
(cuerda, a cord); *' lariat" (lareata, a rope); "ranch" 
(rancho); "sombrero"; "pinto horse" (painted or mottled); 
"corral" (korral, a yard); "lasso" (lazo, a slip knot); 
"cinch" (cincha, to gird, belt or belly-band); "taps" 
(tapadazo, hood, the leather covering to foot in stirrup); 
"latigo" (cinch strap), the long cinch straps on left side of 
saddle to tighten and loosen cinch; "hacamore" (bridle or 
halter); ^'roundup" or "rodeo," and many other words that 
are commonly used without a knowledge of their derivation. 
The language of the plains was racy and picturesque as the 
possessors of it. 

Without fences and no definite boundary to the "free 
grass," it was impossible for the cattlemen to indentify 
their stock unless marked with some individual device. 
The barons of other countries marked their possessions with 
crests and heraldic signs; the barons of the plains used the 
branding-iron with its combination of letters, bars, circles, 
and squares. Originally each cattleman branded his stock 
with his initials, and if two men happened to have the same 
initials the distinguishing mark would be a bar or circle 
combined with letters. There were no cattle of the plains 



cows AND COWBOYS 221 

without these individual markings. While it may seem cruel 
to place a red-hot iron against the hide of an animal until the 
hair is burned away and an impress stamped on the skin, yet 
no better way has been devised by which stockmen can 
identify their animals. As the cattle industry grew, laws 
regulating brands and branding were made by the legisla- 
tures of the different states and territories, and stock asso- 
ciations were formed to regulate and protect the interests 
of the cattlemen. Finally books were kept by the stock 
associations, wherein were recorded the brands that the 
different stockmen used, and no two brands too much alike 
were allowed. 

In the earliest days of the cattle industry it was customary 
for a cowman to put his special brand on the side or shoulder 
of any wild animal found by him upon the open range. 
When the days of the *' roundup" came all unbranded 
cattle found within a definite boundary on the plains belonged 
to the party having the *' roundup. '* The '^ roundup" was 
exactly what the word indicated. When the cattle grazed 
all winter, going where they willed without guide or protector, 
they would wander from the selected range of the owner. 
In the spring the cowboys were sent in every direction from 
the ranch to collect the stray cattle and drive them into 
closer quarters. If an animal was found bearing another 
brand than that owned by the cattle company working the 
''roundup," the cowboys would cut it out of the herd and 
have it returned to its rightful owner. If cattle had no brand, 
they were branded at once and henceforth belonged to the 
''outfit." When a calf was found following its mother it 
was always properly branded with the marks that its parent 
bore. If the Httle fellow wandered around in an orphan 
state, it was called a "maverick" and was sold at pubhc 
auction, the proceeds being divided among the stockmen of 
that district or going into the treasury of the association. 



222 THE PATHBREAKERS 

The honest cattleman had no title to a maverick. The 
' ' rustler ' ' branded it as his own. Cattle thieves also changed 
the brands on cattle belonging to others so that they could 
claim them as their own. Thus a U F can be easily changed, 
or burned over to read O E; or z v can be made to look like 
Z W by the addition of curves and lines; and y (lazy K) 
made to appear as w. When the cattle are sold by one 
stockman to another the brand must be changed in order 
that the last possessor may be able to identify his cattle and 
show his authority to possess stock with some other brand 
than his own upon their hides. In the language of the 
plains the brands are *' vented" by placing an additional 
brand, or mark, near or through the old brand, which in no 
case must be obliterated. To completely destroy the old 
brand would make the title to the cow questionable; to 
"vent the brand " would show an abstract to title. A brand 
H I, bar H I, would be vented by placing a bar below the H, 
or by a crossbar through the brand, h i, orM-r. 

The law of the plains was a just one. The changer of 
brands, or rustler of mavericks, was figuratively branded 
"thief" and there was no place for him among the cowboys. 
He was told to leave the country, and woe to him who dis- 
regarded the warning. But there came a day when the 
rustlers became bolder and banded together like the pirates 
of old, systematically taking cattle that belonged to others. 
Then the stockmen had to join forces against these robbers 
of the plains and a war of extermination began, which in the 
long run always resulted disastrously to the rustler. 

Most ranches were known by their brands. The brand 
of a stockman would give his ranch and his foreman that 
name. The M- (M bar) made the ranch the "Embar," and 
the foreman of the company was not Billie Jones but "Fore- 
man of the Embar"; or the concern would be known as the 
"Two-bar (z) outfit," or D-4 "Mallet Four." There are 



cows AND COWBOYS 



223 



many post-offices in the Western States that have these 
brand names, and letters are sent to Two Bar, Wyoming, 
Embar, and Two Dot, Montana. Sometimes this custom 
produces combinations very ludicrous to the ears of tender- 




ROPING CATTLE ON THE PLAINS 



feet, as in the story where ''Bar Y Harry married the Seven 
Open A Girl." 

Thus the cowboy has been a factor in the building of the 
West, and as an empire-builder he deserves a place in history. 
It has been aptly said, '' The cowboy did not make two blades 
of grass grow where one grew before, but he caused double 
the number of cattle to graze upon the unutilized grass 
which made one of the resources of the land. He was not 
only a product of the country, but a producer for the country, 
and he distinctly added to the total of the crude natural 
wealth quite as much as the farmer who digs such wealth 
up out of the soil." ^ 



1 Hough. The 
Appleton & Co. 



Story of the Cowboy. Copyright, 1897. D. 



224 THE PATHBREAKERS 



REFERENCES 

Hough. The Story of the Cowboy. 

Adams. The Log of a Cowboy. 

Roosevelt. Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. 

Wister. The Virginian. 

Talbot. My People of the Plains. 

Parrish. The Great Plains. 

Steedman. Bucking the Sagebrush. 

Bronson. Reminiscences of a Ranchman. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE RAILROADS 

1. The Preliminary Surveys 4. The Northern Pacific 

2. The Union-Central Pacific 5. The Great Northern 

3. The Southern Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 

Fe Railroads 

1. THE PRELIMINARY SURVEYS 

Now that we have come to the last chapter of the book, 
we have also arrived at the last stage in the development of 
the Great West. That vast expanse of territory lying be- 
tween the Missouri and the Pacific now becomes a real 
part of our United States when the iron trail of the locomo- 
tive connects the two waters. The milHons of people who 
are on the plains, in the valleys, and on the mountains 
would not be there had not the railroads pushed into and 
made a New West. 

The buffaloes were the original engineers, as they followed 
the lay of the land and the run of the water. These buffalo 
paths became Indian trails, which always pointed out the 
easiest way across the mountain barriers. The white man 
followed in these footpaths. The iron trail finished the 
road. 

Lewis and Clark, Pike, Smith, Walker, and Bonneville 
made valuable explorations. Ashley, Sublette, Bridger, 
Baker, Carson, and Fitzpatrick explored every stream in the 
broad domain, hunting for the precious beaver. The Santa 
Fe, Gila, Spanish, Oregon, and California trails gave well 
beaten paths through the new land. Lee, Whitman, De 

225 



226 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



Smet, and Young brought into this wild land some measure 
of gentleness, and sent from it glowing reports of its richness. 
Fremont gave to the world reliable maps and reports, 
making general the geographic knowledge gained in his long 




On the Denver and Rio Grande 

CANON OF THE GRAND RIVER, COLORADO 

and difficult expeditions, always giving due credit to that 
unrivaled transcontinental traveler, guide, and scout, 
Kit Carson. The gold-seekers from every quarter of the 
globe dug from the hillsides and washed from the streams 
that bright metal that caused a stampede westward. The 
Pony Express flashed across the country facing dangers 
and storms. The soldier, standing between civilization and 
savagery, protected the lonely settler and gave his life to 




On the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad 

ROYAL GORGE, GRAND CANON OF THE ARKANSAS, COLORADO 
SOME DIFFICULTIES IN MODERN RAILROAD ENGINEERING 



228 THE PATHBREAKERS 

redeem the fertile and rich lands of the wilderness. The 
cowboy came, with his new industry, to feed the millions 
who had journeyed from afar to build their simple homes 
in the land of newer freedom and wonderful opportunities. 

These were the movements in a western development 
that now awaited the final act, the building of the railroads. 
The time had now come when it was necessary to get 
California and Oregon nearer to the Missouri. The long 
journey by water around Cape Horn, or by wagon over the 
trails, was so dangerous and hazardous, and at the same time 
so long and tedious, that England was actually nearer to the 
civilization of the States than was the Pacific coast. The 
Civil War and the finding of gold in the West hastened 
western development by many years. When the East 
needed the loyal support of the West during the trying days 
of the civil strife, and the wealth from the mines was eagerly 
sought to refill a depleted national purse; when our statesmen 
began to fear that those Americans so far away, so isolated 
from the national center, so rich and self-sufficing, might 
do as the South had done and set up an independent govern- 
ment, no sacrifice seemed too great, no labor too arduous 
that promised to bind that isolated region to the rest of the 
Union. We must remember this when we contemplate 
the generous aid that our country gave to the first builders 
of transcontinental railroads. 

Back as far as the time of Senator Benton, the father-in- 
law of Fremont, Congress debated the advisability of the 
government building a road to the West. Benton was 
always pointing toward the West and crying, ''There is the 
East : there is the road to India." As early as 1835 a proposal 
was submitted to Congress for building a railroad from the 
Mississippi to the Columbia along the Oregon Trail; and 
again, in 1845, Asa Whitney, ever pointing to the Oriental 
trade, almost succeeded in getting Congress to subsidize 




THE BALANCE ROCK, GaRDEX OF THE GOD,'^, COLORADO. ONE 
METHOD OF TRANSPORTATION 



230 THE PATHBREAKERS 

his undertaking to build such a road. In 1850, Stansbury 
and Gunnison made surveys and explorations in Utah and 
Colorado; and during the years 1852 to 1854 the government 
sent out many surveying parties to search for feasible routes 
across the mountains. In all cases the "paths of least 
resistance" were adopted. These were the trails made by 
the Indian, the explorer, the trapper, and the overland 
home-seeker, no matter which way his journey led, to the 
north or south, or to the center of the Great West. The old 
trappers guided the man with the levels and chains to the 
most accessible passes in the mountains and the level paths 
of the plains. 

Bridger's ears had become well trained by this time, for 
he could drop a pebble down a deep canon, and, by counting, 
could determine how many feet it had fallen when it struck 
the water. If his ear was well trained, not less so was his 
eye, for the accuracy of his estimates of distances and 
elevations was amazing, even to the men who made a 
practice of this kind of work. The following story is told 
of his wonderful ability in this line. 

''Which of those passes is the lower?" an engineer once 
asked of him. 

"Yon," said the scout, pointing to the south pass. 

"I should say they were about the same height." 

"Put your clocks on 'em," said Jim, "an' if yon gap ain't 
a thousand or two feet the lowest ye kin have 'em both." 

After a test was made, the south pass proved to be fifteen 
hundred feet lower than the other one. Bridger would have 
made a remarkable topographic engineer. 

In a government report published between 1855-60, 
called "Report of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain 
the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad 
from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean," we find five 
preliminary surveys that resulted as follows: (1) A survey 



THE RAILROADS 231 

along the 47th and 49th parallels, where now run the Northern 
Pacific and the Great Northern on lines nearly corresponding 
to the original survey. (2) A survey between the 41st and 
42nd parallels, which does not widely differ from the route 
of the Union and Central Pacific. (3) A route between the 
38th and 39th parallels, which to-day is occupied by the 
Denver and Rio Grande and the Colorado Midland between 
Denver and the Great Salt Lake Valley. (4) A survey near 
the 35th parallel, covered now by the Santa Fe Railroad. 
(5) Along the 32nd parallel another survey, now occupied 
by the Southern Pacific, the extension of the road being from 
the mouth of the Gila to San Francisco. Take out your 
geography or map and study the fines of these surveys, 
and you will find that they correspond wonderfully to the 
early trails, the path of Smith and Walker, the explorations 
of Fremont, the caravan roads, and the footpaths of Pattie 
and Carson. 

Before the coming of railroads and fast mail trains, the 
citizen of Salt Lake, Virginia City, Boise, or Helena received 
his eastern mail a month, half a year, sometimes a year 
after it was written or printed. To-day we complain if 
the morning's mail is a half-hour late. Now the great morn- 
ing dailies of the city of Chicago are rushed on an overland 
train that comes puffing and throbbing into the land of the 
Far West within forty-eight hours from the time the papers 
were taken from the press. In other words, the people of 
the West are days, weeks, and even months nearer the eastern 
centers than they were half a century ago. 

The necessity of a transcontinental road became impera- 
tive. The settlers demanded adequate protection from the 
sullen natives, who were now fighting every step that the 
white man was making toward their old hunting-grounds. 
Solcfiers, ammunition, and provision had to be transported 
to the West; the settler, with his few belongings, must 



232 THE PATHBREAKERS 

have better means of travel than that afforded by the oxen, 
mules, or horses; added to these was the fact that the com- 
merce from the river to the coast and from the Orient to 
the '' Father of Waters" must have quicker and safer 
transportation. 

But the telegraph preceded the railroad. In 1860 Edward 
Creighton commenced a preliminary survey for a telegraph 
line from the Missouri to the Pacific. With the usual dangers 
encountered while going over the trail in the middle of the 
winter, dangers from highwaymen and Indians, storm and 
cold, Creighton made the journey in an overland stage 
coach from Omaha to Salt Lake. From this young city he 
continued on horseback across the alkali desert and Sierra 
Nevada to Sacramento, where he interested the California 
Telegraph Company in his enterprise. Returning to Omaha 
in the spring, Creighton was ready to commence his under- 
taking. In the meantime the government had granted a 
subsidy, a prize of forty thousand dollars a year to the 
company that should first estabhsh a telegraph line across 
our new West. 

Now Creighton and the California company rushed into 
the work, each hoping to capture this handsome bonus. 
Creighton commenced to dig his post holes and string his 
wires toward the West. The Cahfornia people worked 
toward the East. Salt Lake City was the goal, that is, the 
first company to get its line into that place would get the 
subsidy. West from Omaha to Salt Lake was a distance of 
eleven hundred miles, east from Placerville to that point 
was only four hundred fifty miles. The difficulties to be 
encountered on the road were about equal. Creighton won, 
completing his line on the 17th of October, 1861, the Califor- 
nia company digging its last hole one week later. When the 
first message was flashed over the wires on October 24th, 
another step was made in the process of civilizing the West. 



\ 



THE RAILROADS 233 

The Indians soon learned that those humming wires 
carried messages that called for help, and that the soldiers 
would quickly respond to the call. In their determination 
to keep the white man back from their territory they tore 
down the wires by throwing their lariats over the line and 
then putting their ponies on a run. When this did not do 
effective work, they took their tomahawks and cut down the 
poles. The destruction of the telegraph lines was a chief 
reason for the defeat of our forces along the Bozeman Road. 
The Indians, just before they made a raid, would destroy 
the wires so that there could be no communication with 
the outside world, and the outside world, thinking that if 
help were needed a call would be made, assumed that all 
was well. 

Even the buffalo seemed to conspire against this last step 
of civilization. The telegraph poles w^ere rubbed smooth, 
and sometimes thrown down, by the monarchs of the plains 
scratching their sides against them. To prevent this de- 
struction, sharp spikes were driven into the poles, but this 
only added to the delight of the buffalo as the spikes went 
deeper into the shaggy hair and tough hide. 

2. THE UNION-CENTRAL PACIFIC ' 

In order to make possible the building of the first trans- 
continental railroad, our government appropriated vast sums 
of money and gave extensive tracts of land to the Union 
Pacific and Central Pacific railways, the combination of the 
two roads making a continuous line of transportation from 
the Missouri to the Pacific coast. In money and land the 
Union Pacific received $450,000,000, the Central Pacific 
$380,000,000. Yet with this stupendous gift it was difficult, 
almost impossible, to get men of means interested enough 
in the enterprise to risk their money in the venture. Oakes 
Ames and Sidney Dillon, whose names can never be separated 



234 THE PATHBREAKERS 

from that of the Union Pacific, searched the money markets 
and pleaded with millionaires for capital to build the great 
road. President Lincoln, too, worked night and day trying 
to get capitalists to furnish money for the construction of 




Union Pacific Railway 

GRADING FOR A RAILROAD 

the road, which he considered of vast importance. It was 
a heartbreaking task. The man of business did not believe 
the scheme was practicable. He had no money to invest 
in two thousand miles of railway, declaring that the Indians 
would tear up the track and make bonfires of the flag stations 
along the line. In all the 650 miles between Reno, Nevada, 
and Corinne, Utah, there was only one white man living. 
How could a railroad pay across such deserts? All honor to 
Ames and Dillon for their perseverance. Had it not been 



THE RAILROADS 235 

for those two men and the generous aid of Congress this 
splendid undertaking must have failed. 

The first sod of the new road was turned at Omaha on the 
5th of November, 1865, and with that act one of the greatest 
engineering feat of all times was commenced. At the very 
outstart the company encountered enormous expense. All 
the machinery, men, cars and material had to be brought 
up from St. Louis by boats. Wages were high, for each man 
realized that he was to encounter known and unknown 
dangers. Then there was no fuel along the right of way. 
The deserts were treeless, and as a result ties had to be hauled 
a great distance. Often there was no stone or rock for ballast. 
In fact, as Warman says, ''They found absolutely nothing; 
only the great right of way and the west wind sighing over 
the dry, wide waste of a waveless sea." 

''For three long winters engineers living in tents and 
dugouts watched every summit, slope, and valley along the 
entire fifteen hundred miles of road, to learn from the 
currents where the snow would drift deep and where the 
ground would be blown bare. In summer they watched the 
washouts that came when the hills were denuded by what, 
in the West, they called cloud-bursts. These were the only 
experts competent to say whether a draw should be bridged 
or filled, and only after years of residence in the hills." ^ 

The story of the Indian depredations committed along 
this road while it was being built would fill many books. 
Loss of life and property was a daily occurrence. These 
trail-makers were as brave and fearless as those who had 
gone over the path years before. At some points along 
the line they never knew when night came if they or some one 
else would be wearing their scalps in the morning. A large 
number of the men employed in the construction of the road 

1 Warman. The Story of the Railroad. Copyright, 1898. D. 
Appleton & Co. 



THE RAILROADS 237 

had been soldiers in the South and easily adapted themselves 
to camp life and the dangers of the plains. These unem- 
ployed men who had experienced battles in the ranks of 
war found civilization too tame for them, and longed for 
some excitement. The freedom of the West offered alluring 
attractions, and the railroad construction benefited by this 
restlessness. Thus, at a moment's warning, a thousand men 
could be put into the field thoroughly trained for a battle, 
able to subdue three times their number of untrained and 
undisciplined red men. In the ranks of these railroad 
employees might be found those soldiers of other battles 
who had ranked from generals to privates. 

Buffalo Bill obtained his name from the occupation he 
followed at this time. When the Union Pacific Railroad was 
constructing its line toward the West, in 1867, Cody was 
hired to furnish fresh buffalo meat to the construction men. 
On account of the hostility of the Indians it was an extremely 
dangerous undertaking, but Cody undertook this task. When 
this hunter would come into camp of an evening with his 
wagon filled with fresh meat, the men would exclaim, '^Here 
comes old Bill with more buffalo,'* until the two names 
Bill and buffalo, became inseparable. 

During one year Buffalo Bill killed for the railroad four 
thousand two hundred eighty buffalo with the help of his 
pony, ''Old Brigham," and his breach-loader, "Lucretia 
Borgia." 

It is to be observed that when the North Platte was 
reached there was a ''parting of the ways,'* for at this 
station the Union Pacific left the Oregon Trail, going south 
and then directly west in place of following the river to 
Fort Laramie. There are those to this day who beheve that 
the better route would have been along the old highway and 
through South Pass, but to the south the Indians were less 
troublesome and the roadbed was more easily constructed. 



238 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



With the commencement of the Union Pacific at Council 
Bluffs, the Central Pacific began its construction work at 
Sacramento, California, at the western limit of the wilder- 
ness. This part of the road was pushed forward with 
feverish haste toward the East and met the west-bound road 




, v:->'W^. j#^?!; 



From an old Photograph 

THE MEETING OF THE UNION AND CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILWAYS 
AT PROMONTORY POINT, UTAH, MAY 10, 1869 

in Utah. There, at Promontory Point, about thirty miles 
west of Ogden, on the tenth day of May, 1869, the final 
connection of the two lines was made with great ceremony 
amidst the joyful plaudits of more people than one could 
expect that bare region to furnish. With a silver hammer 
four spikes were driven at the union of the railroads, two 
silver and two gold spikes, coming from the mines of 
Montana, Nevada, Cahfornia, and Idaho. With this 
ceremony came speeches and prophecies from the great 



240 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



leaders who had pushed this gigantic work to its com- 
pletion. 

When George Francis Train made a rousing speech in 
Omaha at the time of "the breaking of the sod" he was 
laughed at for saying that the road to the West would be 




Union Pacific Railway 

THE IRON TRAILS, SHOWING THE BALLASTED ROADBED, DOUBLE 
TRACK AND ELECTRIC BLOCK SIGNALS 

completed in five years. He was called a dreamer. The 
actual time was three years, six months, and ten days. 
Train missed his guess by a year and a half. 

The Union Pacific had built eleven hundred eighty-six 
miles from the Missouri, the Central Pacific six hundred 
thirty-eight miles east of Sacramento. 

No wonder that there was rejoicing on this historic day, 
for it was the beginning of a new era, and an infinitely 
better era for both East and West. The West saw in it the 
beginning of the end of hardship and privation; the East 
saw^ new and wonderfully rich land waiting to be exploited. 



242 THE PATHBREAKERS 

The Pacific railroad was completed, and the day of the 
trapper, the explorer, the Pony Express, and the emigrant 
wagon over the old trails was no more, for the iron trail 
had come into possession of its own. 



3. THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC AND THE ATCHISON. 
TOPEKA AND SANTA FE RAILROADS 

When the Central Pacific was constructed the engineers 
encountered many serious difficulties from the heavy fall 
of snow and the drifts that blockaded the trains. Many 
miles of wooden snowsheds had to be built, particularly 
in the Sierras. To the expense of the original building 
of these sheds was added the great cost of replacing those 
that were burned by sparks from the locomotives, for the 
wooden constructions were very dry and easily caught 
fire. The owners of the Central Pacific, Huntington, Stan- 
ford, and Crocker, wishing to avoid the snowdrifts in 
the north and the constant repairs on the sheds, sought a 
southern route and built the Southern Pacific Railroad, 
which started from San Francisco and ended in El Paso, 
Texas. 

The Gadsden Purchase was made by our government in 
1854 for the sum of ten million dollars, in order to have a 
territory through w^hich to construct a railroad. Jefferson 
Davis, in 1853, then Secretary of War, had five surveys 
made for transcontinental roads. He naturally favored the 
most southern one on the 32nd parallel. But the best route 
was that followed by Brigadier-General Cooke and the 
Mormon Battalion in taking through General Kearny's 
wagons in 1847. Therefore the Gadsden Purchase was 
made, whereby our government obtained parts of the Mexi- 
can states of Sonora and Chihuahua, and had an elevated 
table-land on which to run a southern railroad, avoiding the 



244 THE PATHBREAKERS 

Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains with 
their deep snows and steep slopes. 

The Gadsden Purchase was denounced, and the expendi- 
ture of such an enormous amount of money for only forty-five 
thousand acres of cactus desert, unfit for cultivation, was 
declared a waste of money. But this land was valuable from 
a strategic standpoint as a passageway to the coast, and its 
purchase forever settled the boundary question between 
the United States and Mexico. 

The government not only gave the Union-Central Pacific 
vast tracts of land, but the Southern Pacific came in for its 
share with twenty-four million acres and the Santa Fe 
system received seventeen million. Even with this generous 
help it was a huge undertaking and only men of large views 
dared to risk their money in either road. 

The line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe followed 
the old trail to a remarkable degree. The Santa Fe caravan 
made a roadbed that was often used for the iron trail. 

A few miles north of Topeka is the little town of Wakarusa, 
at which point the railroad follows the route of the caravan 
trail. Even where the routes do not coincide they run so 
close together that nearly every stream, hill, and wooded dell 
recalls some story of adventure that occurred in those days 
when the railroad was regarded as an impossibility and the 
region beyond the Missouri was a veritable desert. 

At Pawnee Fork the railroad crosses the river at exactly 
the place that the old trail did. Here were fought some of 
the bloodiest battles of the plains between the hostile tribes. 
Here the Indians also fought freight wagon, coach, and every 
kind of outfit that passed over the trail, for this was the 
natives* greatest resort for robbery and murder. 

The railroad passes by the ruins of Fort Bent and the old 
camping-grounds of the Arapahoes and the Cheyennes. It 
crosses Raton Pass precisely as the old trail did, and just 



THE RAILROADS 



245 



before reaching the 
summit it passes 
the tavern of Uncle 
Dick Wooton, who 
built the toll road 
over the pass. 
Uncle Dick's old 
buildings were to 
be seen at the right 
of the track by all 
going westward on 
Santa Fe trains un- 
til two years ago; 
but they have been 
torn down to make 
way for a handsome 
mountain lodge, for 
J. Pierpont Morgan 
has bought thirty- 
two thousand acres 
in that region and 
has turned it into 
a coal mining and 
hunting ground. 

In February, 
1880, the railroad 
reached the sleepy 
old city of Santa Fe 
and the day of the 
ox team, the cara- 
van, and the stage 
coach was over. The 
Santa Fe Trail had 
passed into history. 




246 THE PATHBREAKERS 

About the time that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 
Railroad reached the city of Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific 
had reached El Paso. Now, it was the intention of the 
former railroad to push its line to the Pacific coast as soon 
as possible and it was also the purpose of the other road to 
construct a fine east to the Mississippi or the Gulf of Mexico. 
By mutual agreement, however, these two roads met at 
Deming, near El Paso, and used each other's lines to reach 
from the coast to the Mississippi, and thus was finished 
the second transcontinental fine. Ultimately the Southeri 
Pacific built east as far as New Orleans, and pushed a lim 
northward from San Francisco to Portland that ran paralle^ 
with the trail of Jedediah Smith, when he went from 
Monterey to the home of Dr. McLoughlin at Vancouver. 
Then the Santa Fe finally constructed its own line to 
San Francisco, and again the Missouri and the Pacific 
were connected. 

4. THE NORTHERN PACIFIC 

The Northern Pacific Railway Company received a charter 
in 1864 to build a railroad from some point on Lake Superior, 
in the state of Minnesota or Wisconsin, westward on a line 
north of the forty-fifth degree of latitude to a point at or near 
Portland, Oregon. Furthermore, it received a land grant of 
forty sections of public land per mile of road through the 
territories, and twenty sections through the states across 
which its road would be constructed. 

The beginning of the construction of the Northern Pacific 
was made near Duluth. The equipment resembled the ma- 
terials for a military campaign more than for a peaceful sur- 
vey. Almost every mile Indians were encountered, who con- 
tested every foot of progress. These first preliminary 
surveys were made in the early fifties. The same problem of 
obtaining money that had confronted the other roads had to 



THE RAILROADS 247 

be met by this one, but construction work began in the sum- 
mer of 1870. Money was not to be had, however, and the 
road went into the hands of a receiver in 1875. Then came 
Henry Villard, the real genius of the Northern Pacific. He 
had extensive transportation interests on the Columbia, 
thoroughly appreciated the wonderful possibilities of Wash- 
ington and Oregon, the home of the farmer and the settler 
with room for hundreds of thousands more, and he took hold 
»of the bankrupt road and pushed it on to the coast. 
I It took thirty years to build the Northern Pacific, and like 
the Union, Central and Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe» 
it was obliged to receive government aid for its construction. 
No private fortune at that time could be expected to under- 
take the gigantic task of putting a railroad across deserts, 
over mountains, through rocks and across tremendous rivers 
just to connect the Pacific with the Atlantic. The *Uast 
spike" ceremony enacted September 8, 1883, in western 
Montana, was second in interest only to that of the Union- 
Central Pacific. When Villard hammered down the last 
spike amidst the noise of loud cheering, booming of artillery 
and strains of martial music, he was surrounded by prominent 
men not only of America but also of Europe. 

This Northern Pacific sweeps over the rich prairies of 
Minnesota, through the most fertile farm lands of North 
Dakota, and stretches onward to the Yellowstone, up this 
branch of the Missouri, through the towns of Billings, Liv- 
ingston, and Bozeman, above which one line branches off 
to Helena while another runs through Butte, both branches 
reuniting farther west to run through Missoula, then over the 
Bitter Root Mountains, the divide between Montana and 
Idaho, across the handle of Idaho to Spokane, Washington, 
then south to the historic Columbia at Pasco, and along the 
great river to the railroad's terminal at Portland, whence 
extensions rush to Seattle and Tacoma. A wonderful 



248 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



pioneer road through a more wonderful Northwest, directly 
across five states that furnish the world's market with grain, 
gold, silver, copper, cattle, sheep, fruit, timber, and fuel in 
tremendous quantities. 

The Northern Pacific Railway is intimately related to the 
Lewis and Clark trails. ''From Bismarck and Mandan on 




B^ro) 



Northi ni J'nrific Railway 

IRRIGATION CANAL IN BITTER ROOT VALLEY 



the Missouri River in North Dakota, it parallels the explor- 
ers' line of travel along the Missouri, Yellowstone, Gallatin, 
and Jefferson rivers to Helena and Whitehall, and, on a part 
of the Hellgate River to Missoula, Montana, its main lines 
again connect with it on the Columbia River in eastern 
Washington and also in Oregon. Through its branch lines 
it meets or parallels the route in the Jefferson, Bitter Root, 
Clearwater, and Snake rivers in Montana, Idaho, Washing- 
ton, and Oregon." ^ 

1 Wheeler. The Trail of Lewis and Clark. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



THE RAILROADS 249 

Thus the Pacific is reached for the third time, and the trail 
of the explorer has been crossed, united and recrossed by the 
iron trail, just as it was by the other two transcontinental 
lines. 

5. THE GREAT NORTHERN 

It sometimes has been claimed that the Great Northern 
Railroad is the only transcontinental line that was built 
without public aid. While this is almost true, it is not 
quite an accurate statement. When James J. Hill, the fam- 
ous railroad man of St. Paul, in 1879, organized the St. Paul, 
Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad it received 3,675,000 
acres of free land from the United States. With the excep- 
tion of this subsidy, that most northern of our railroads was 
built with private capital. The Great Northern Railroad 
was an outgrowth of the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Mani- 
toba, and was completed in 1893, running from St. Paul to 
Seattle. 

Hill may well be called one of the great captains of the 
world, for he pushed his hne to the coast, depending entirely 
upon the growth of the country through which his road ran 
and the trade he expected to have with Asia and the Pacific 
Islands to repay him. For a time he had in operation a fine 
line of steamers, some of them the largest in the world, run- 
ning from his terminus on Puget Sound to China, Japan, 
Honolulu, the Phihppines, and even to Siberia. These ves- 
sels carried over grain, flour, and machinery, and brought 
back fruits, silks, tea, spices, and fancy wares. 

A century ago, if you remember, John Jacob Astor had a 
cherished dream of doing this very thing, — making a trans- 
continental route and at the end of it a line of ships to trade 
with the Orient. Hill reahzed this dream with his Great 
Northern. 

This road made a new record for speed in construction 



250 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



from Fargo, North Dakota, to Helena, Montana. Material 
for miles of equipment was constantly rolled forward to the 
builders. ''The supply train was unloaded in a drilled con- 
fusion of mad haste near the end of the track. Ties and 
rails were seized as soon as they touched the ground and 
were hurled to the front by galloping horses; and the system 





/ 


.^j-^-m 



BRIDGE OVER THE MISSISSIPPI. RED WING, MINNESOTA 



was SO elaborately studied that five hundred seventy blows 
an hour was an exact standard of performance for each 
spiker." 

Lewis and Clark made some of the preliminary surveys 
also for this road. The trail of the explorers is virtually 
paralleled from Minot to Helena. The Great Northern 
passed up the Maria's River to the exact spot where Lewis 
had his first and only combat with the Indians. The south- 
ern branch of the road, going south past Fort Benton and the 
Great Falls, follows the old trail where the iron boat was 
cached in 1805 and put into use again in 1806 when Lewis 






THE RAILROADS 



251 



returned from the coast. The iron trail follows the portage 
trail of the expedition, passing too far away to give a view of 
the Great Falls, but permitting passengers to view from a 
palace car window the Rainbow and Black Eagle falls above, 
which the explorers 
saw after such a 
toilsome and sore- 
footed portage 
over a century ago. 
When the Great 
Northern was to 
be put across the 
continent men 
laughed at Hill's 
ambition. The 
idea of building a 
road north of the 
Northern Pacific, 
which they 
thought already so 
far north that the 
country through 
which it ran could 
not grow wheat, 
seemed absurd, 
and Hill's new 

venture was called ''Hill's Folly." But Hill had faith in him- 
self and in the country through which he was constructing his 
road. He knew that land and what countless thousands it 
was capable of supporting. He looked into the future and 
saw his line running through a populous region of fine farms, 
the future wheat belt of the world, where thriving villages and 
busy cities would have transportation needs to try the best 
equipped road. And he set himself to the task of building 




D >, ,! ! R > (rnnule Railroad 
CUHECAXTI NEEDLE, BLACK CAXON OF 
THE GUNNISON, COLORADO 



252 



THE PATHBREAKERS 



up this region in the shortest possible time. He sent his 
agents all over northern Europe, telling of the fertile valleys, 
the extensive irrigation projects, the unrivaled advantages 
of farm hfe in Montana, Idaho, and Washington, and the 




Scientific Americati 

A BIPLANE RACING WITH A TRAIN 

ease of acquiring a comfortable home. His seed fell on good 
soil and thousands of honest, hard-working Germans, Swedes, 
Norwegians, Danes, Scotchmen, Englishmen, Irishmen, yes, 
and native Americans, are pouring into that country and 



THE RAILROADS 253 

building up in our Northwest commonwealths second to 
none in the Union. All along the line of this great railroad 
towns now exist where only a few years ago no one lived at 
all; small settlements have grown into prosperous cities; and 
lands but lately barren have become vast wheat belts fur- 
nishing bread to all countries of the world. 

While these great trunk-lines crossed the continent from 
the river to the coast other Hues were run to the South and 
up from the South, and spurs and side lines were added to 
this network until almost every part even of the Great West 
has become fairly easy to reach. 

Witness the growth of the West. In a few years the barren 
wilderness has changed into a prosperous land of homes and 
schools; the cactus of the prairies has given place to fields of 
grain; the desert plains have grown fertile through the use of 
the irrigating ditch; the grazing lands of the buffalo have 
been turned by traction plows; and all things have changed 
except the sunshine, the singing winds and the everlasting 
hills. 

While we are enjoying the luxuries of this new era of the 
Great West let us not forget to honor those who endured 
hardships and privations, encountered dangers and peril; 
yes, even gave up their lives to make these things possible. 
Let us ever remember Lewis and Clark and Pike, who blazed 
the way; the grizzled old beaver hunters, who explored every 
nook and corner and mapped out routes ; the trader and the 
caravan merchant, who with their wagons wore down the 
trails and made them possible for colonists; the scientific 
explorers, who spread authentic accounts far and wide 
among the people of the East; the missionaries, who braved 
death to spread the Gospel of Christ; the gold-seekers, who 
came in crowds to the mountain sides and started town life ; 
the soldiers, who fought and died to protect the home-seeker, 
his wife and babies; the picturesque cowboy, who once ruled 



254 THE PATHBREAKERS 

the plains; and the railroads, which came to bind inseparably 
the East and the West and to fill the plains and mountain 
lands with fruitful farms and thriving towns, and, lastly, let 
us not forget the Indian, the original native whose tragedy 
underlies the white men's triumph. 

It is all a story that has never had its equal in the world's 
history. The Great American Desert is no more. *'The 
West has changed. The old days are gone. The house dog 
sits on the hill where yesterday the coyote sang. The fences 
are short and small, and within them grow green things in- 
stead of gray. There are many smokes rising over the 
prairie, but they are wide and black, instead of thin and 
blue." 1 

REFERENCES 

Warman. The Story of the Railroads. 

Spearman. The Strategy of the Great Railroads. 

Wheeler. The Trail of Lewis and Clark. 

Dellenbaugh. The Breaking of the Wilderness. 

Laut. Story of the Trapper. 

Inman. The Old Santa Fe Trail. 

Paxson. The Last of the American Frontier, 

1 Hough. The Story of the Cowboy. (Copyright, 1897. D. 
Appleton & Co.) 



BIBLIOGKAPHY 

* Adams. The Log of a Cowboy. 
*Altsheler. The Last of the Chiefs. 
*Altsheler. The Horsemen of the Plains. 

Bancroft's Histories. Separate volumes on the various States 
West of the Mississippi. 

Beckwourth. Life and Letters. 

Belden. The White Chief. 
*Bennett. a Volunteer with Pike. 

Bowles. Across the Continent. 
*BouRKE. On the Border with Crook. 
*Boyles. The Spirit Trail. 
*Brady. The Conquest of the Southwest. 
*Brady. Northwestern Fights and Fighters. 
*Brady. Indian Fights and Fighters. 

Brigham. Geographic Influences in American History. 
*Bronson. Reminiscences of a Ranchman. 

Brooks. First Across the Continent. 
*Brown. The Glory Seekers. 

Bruce. The Romance of American Expansion. 
*Burnett. Recollections of an Old Pioneer. 

Carrington. Army Life on the Plains. 
*Carter. When Railroads were New. 

Chittenden. The American Fur Trade. 

Chittenden. The Life of Father De Smet. 
*CoDY. The Tales of the Plains. 

Cooke. The Conquest of New Mexico and California. 

CouES. The Expedition of Zebulon Pike. 

CouTANT. History of Wyoming. 

Custer. Life on the Plains. 
*CusTER, Boots and Saddles. 

Dellenbaugh. Breaking the Wilderness. 
*Dye. McLoughlin and Old Oregon. 

* To be used for reading rather than for reference. 
255 



256 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

*Dye. McDonald of Oregon. 
*Dye. The Conquest. 

Eels. Marcus Whitman. 

Fairbanks. The Western United States. 

FiNERTY. Warpath and Bivouac. 
*FoRSYTH. The Story of the Soldier. 

Fremont. Story of my Life. 

Gregg. Commerce of the Prairies. 
*Grey. The Last of the Plainsmen. 

Grinnell. The Story of the Indian. 
*Grinnell. Trails of the Pathfinder. 

Hailey. History of Idaho. 
*Hansen. The Conquest of the Missouri. 

Hebard. History and Government of Wyoming. 

Herman. The Louisiana Purchase. 
*HiTCHCOCK. The Louisiana Purchase. 
*Hosmer. The History of the Louisiana Purchase. 
*HosMER. The Expedition of Lewis and Clark. 
*HouGH. The Way to the W^est. 
*HouGH. The Story of the Cowboy. 
*Irving. Astoria. 

Irving. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville. 

Inman. The Great Salt Lake Trail. 

Inman. The Old Santa Fe Trail. 
*Jackson (Helen Hunt). Ramona. 
*JoHNSON. Pioneer Spaniards in America. 
*JuDSON. Montana. 

Knower. The Day of the Forty-Niner. 

Langford. Vigilante Days and Ways. 

Larpenteur. Forty Years a Fur Trader. 

Laut. The Story of the Trapper. 
*Laut. The Pathfinders of the West. 

Lewis and Clark. Journals. 
*LuMMis. The New Mexican David. 

LuMMis. The Spanish Pioneers. 

LuMMis. Pioneer Transportation in America. 

Lyman. The Columbia River. 

*McBeth. The Nez Perce Indians since Lewis and Clark. 
*McLaughlin. My Friend the Indian. 
*McMurray. Pioneers of the Rocky Mountains. 

* To be used for reading rather than for reference. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 257 

*McNeil. With Kit Carson in the Rockies. 

Majors. Seventy Years on the Frontier, 

Marcy. Army Life on the Border. 

Marshall. History vs. the Whitman Saved Oregon Story. 

Meant. History of the State of Washington. 

Miles. Personal Recollections. 

Montana. Contributions to the Historical Society. 

Paine. The Greater America. 

Parkman. a Half-Century of Conflict. 
*Parkman. The Oregon Trail. 
*Parrish. The Great Plains. 
*Parrish. Keith of the Border. 
*Paxson. The Last American Frontier. 

Prince. Historical Sketches of New Mexico. 

Richardson. Beyond the Mississippi. 
*Roosevelt. Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. 

Roosevelt. The Wilderness Hunter. 

Roosevelt. Winning of the West. 
*Roosevelt. Stories of the Great West. 
*RooT and Connelley. The Overland Stage to California. 

RoYCE. History of California. 

ScHAFER. History of the Pacific Northwest. 

Semple. American History and Its Geographic Conditions. 

Spearman. The Strategy of the Great Railroads. 

Stansbury. Report of Great Salt Lake. 
*Steedman. Bucking the Sagebrush. 
*Talbot. My People of the Plains. 

Thw^aites. Early Western Travels, a large number of Journals edited 

by Dr. Thwaites. 
*Thwaites. Rocky Mountain Explorations. 
*TwAiN. Roughing It. 

Twitchell. The MiHtary Occupation of New Mexico, 1S46-1S5L 
*Vischer. The Pony Express. 

Warm AN. The Story of the Railroads. 
*Wetmore. The Last of the Great Scouts (Buffalo Bill). 
*Wheeler. The Trail of Lewis and Clark. 

Whitney. History of Utah. 

Winship. The Journey of Coronado. 
*WiSTER. The Virginian, 
*WooD. The Lives of Famous Chiefs. 

* To be used for reading rather than for reference. 



INDEX 



American Fur Company, 70 
Ames, Oakes and Oliver, 234 
Apache Indians, 191 
Arickaree River, fight on, 190 
Arikara villages, 61 

tribes, 53 
Arras t re, 168 
Ashley, Wilham, 60 
Assinniboine Indians, 9 
Astor, John Jacob, 47 
Astoria, 47, 50, 59 
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 
Railroad, 242 

Baird, 79 

Balance Rock, 229 

Baptiste, 35 

Bsar Flag Fight, 150 

Becknell, Captain, 79 

Bent's Fort, 244 

Benton, Thomas, 133, 151, 228 

Berger, 71 

Biplane, 252 

Bismarck, N. D., 195 

Bitter Root Mountains, 27, 32 

Valley, 248 
Blackfeet Indians, 32, 46, 53, 61, 

68, 71, 113, 121, 123 
Blackhawk, Chief, 204 
Block-house, 37 
Bonneville, Captain, 64 
Book of Heaven, 104 
Boone, Daniel, 52, 91 



Bozeman, John M., 183 

Pass, 27 

Road, 181, 183, 184, 213 
Bradbury, John, 52 
Branding cattle, 222 

venting, 222 
Bridger, James, 61, 64, 88, 129, 

143, 230 
Bronco, 216 
Buffalo, 5, 76, 210, 225 
Buffalo Bill, 178, 198, 237 

Cache, 23, 32, 80 
California, 66, 96, 100, 102, 146, 
149, 150, 155, 156 

Trail, 96 
Cameahwait, Chief, 25 
Campbell, Robert, 61, 64 
Canby, Edward S., 205 
Cannon used by Coronado, 2 
Captain Jack, Chief, 205 
Caravans, 82, 84 
Carrington, Henry B., 185 
Carson, Kit, 64, 135, 141, 142, 
151, 152, 166 

City, 162 

Carver, Jonathan, 37, 39 

Castro, General, 149 

Catholic Missions, Southwest, 98 

De Smet, 1 18 
Cattle, 209, 215 
Central Pacific Railroad, 233 



259 



260 



INDEX 



Charbonneau, Toussaint, 22, 33 
Cheyenne, 211, 

De Smet in, 126 

Indians, 188 
Chimney Rock, 90, 93 
China, trade with, 249 
Chopunnish Indians, 27 
Cimarron desert, 80 
Clatsop Indians, 29 
Clark, WilUam, 18, 34, 104, 133 
Cliff Dwellers, 3, 6 
Cody, William, 178, 198 
Colorado, 1, 163, 227, 229 
Colter, John, 33, 34, 52 
Columbia River, 28, 47, 49 
Comcomly, Chief, 29 
Comstock Lode, 162 
Conner, Patrick, 203 
Coronado, 1, 77, 99 
Cortez, 1 
Council Bluffs, 21 
Cowboys, 209, 214, 215 
Crazy Horse, Chief, 196, 199 
Creighton, Edward, 232 
Crook, George, 192, 195, 198 
Crooked Creek, 27 
Crow Indians, 183 
Custer, George A., 191, 195, 197 

Dale Creek Bridge, 236 

Dalles, 143 

Denver, 164, 166 

DeSmet, Jean Pierre, 118, 163 

De Soto, 77 

De Vargas, 83 

Devil's Gate, 58 

Diamond City, 182 

Dillon, Sidney, 234 

Dorion, Pierre, 52 

Drewyer, 18, 32, 46 

Drouillard, 18 



Eads, William, 169 
Echo Canon, 128 
Explorers, 1 
Express lines, 172 

Falls of Saint Anthony, 23 
Fetterman Massacre, 186, 187 

William, 185 
Fitzpatrick, Thomas, 64, 141 
Flathead Indians, 29, 54, 103, 120 
Floyd, Charles, 21 
Fontenelle, Lucien, 64 
Fort Ashley-Henry, 61, 62 

Bent, 71, 147, 148, 181 

Benton, 73 

Boise, 89, 95 

Bonneville, 65 

Bridger, 88, 89, 95 

Clatsop, 28, 31, 50 

Hall, 68, 88, 96, 143 

Kearney, Phil., 183 

Laramie,73,88,90,91,93,136,181 

Manuel, 46, 62 

Pierre, 73, 74, 182 

Reno, 183 

St. Vrain, 141 

Smith, C. F., 185 

Sutter, 146, 149, 156 

Union, 71, 72, 181 

Vancouver, 59, 60 

Walla Walla, 107, 108, 113 
Forsyth, George A., 189 
Forty-niners, 160 
France, 16 
Freight lines, 172 
Fremont, John Charles, 133 
Fremont's Peak, 139 
Fur Companies, 45 

Gadsden Purchase, 242 
Gall, Chief, 196 



INDEX 



261 



Geronimo, Chief, 194 

Gibbon, John, 195, 200 

Gila Trail, 86, 150 

Gold discoveries, 156 

Grand Canon of the Colorado, 5 

River, 226 
Gray, Robert, 17 
Great Falls, Montana, 32 

Northern Railroad, 249 

Salt Lake, 67, 128, 141, 143, 
148, 151, 176, 241 

Trail, 96 
Green River, 107, 114, 120 
Gros Ventre Mountains, 62 
Gunnison, 251 

Haslam, Robert, 179 
Hat Island, 143 
Helena, 169 

Hennepin, Father, 13, 23 
Henry, Andrew, 61 
Henry's Fork, 46 

Post, 54, 55 
Hickock, James, 212 
Hidatsa Indians, 27 
Hill, James B., 249 
Holladay, Ben, 175 
Howard, O. O., 200 
Hudson's Bay Company, 60, 67, 

69, 95, 109 
Hunt, Wilson Price, 46, 49 

Idaho, 170 

Indian implements, 36, 47, 69, 75 
Independence, 85 
Rock, 58, 94, 139 

Jackson, David, 61, 81 
Jackson's Lake, 54 
Jefferson, Thomas, 15 
Joseph, Chief, 199 



Kearny, General, 150 
Kelley, Hall J., 110 
Klamath Indians, 150, 204 

La Lande, 77 

La Ramie, Jacques, 142 

LaSalle, 13 

Latter-Day Saints, 126 

Ledyard, John, 17 

Lee, Daniel and Jason, 69, 105 

Lewis, Meriwether, 18, 36 

on Maria's River, 32 

Governor, 34 
Lewis and Clark, 13, 45, 103, 187, 

250 
Lisa, Manuel, 46, 52 
Little Fox Indian, 12 
Long Drive, 184, 209 
Louisiana, 13 

Purchase, 16, 39 
Lovejoy, Amos, 113 

McDougal, Duncan, of Astoria, 

49, 51, 59 
McKenzie, Kenneth, 71 
McKnight, 79 
McLoughlin, Dr. John, 67, 105, 

110, 144 
Mandan Chief, 10 

Villages, 9, 11, 19, 21, 33, 45, 61 
Maps, 14, 78, 138 
Marcos, Fray, 2, 99 
Maria's River, 22, 32, 71 
Marquette, Father, 13 
Marshall, James, 156, 162 
Mavericks, 221 
Meeker, Ezra, 92 
Mer'de I'Ouest, 7 
Merritt, Wesley, 198 
Mexican War, Fremont in, 148 
Michaux, Andre, 17 
Miles, Nelson A., 194, 199, 201 



262 



INDEX 



Missionaries, 98 

Catholic, 98, 118 

Congregational, 106 

Methodist, 60, 103 

Mormon, 126 

Presbyterian, 106 
Mississippi River, 15 
Missouri River, 17, 36 
Missouri Fur Company, 45 
Modoc Indians, 204 
Montana, 167 
Monterey, 96, 101, 150 
Mormons, 126, 202 

Battalion, 127 

Napoleon, 15 

Nebraska Trail Marker, 95 

Nevada, 162 

New Orleans, 15 

Nez Perce Indians, 28, 31, 103, 199 

Northern Pacific Railroad, 246 

Ogden, Peter Skenne, 117, 131 
Old Spanish Trail, 86 
Oregon Country, 105, 141 

Trail, 55, 58, 114 

Trail established, 87, 116 

first over, 54 

Forty-niners, 90 

Mormons, 90, 129 

Whitman, 89, 111 
Orofino, 170 
Overland Limited, 239 

Parker, Samuel, 106 
Parkman, Francis, 90 
Pathfinder, Fremont, 140 
Pattie, James, 87 
Pierce, E. D., 170 
Pierre's Hole, 54, 57, 63 

De Smet at, 120 

fight in, 68 



Pike, Zebulon, 36, 41, 79 
Pike's Peak, 40, 165 
Pioneer Gulch, 167 
Pompey's Pillar, 30 
Pony Bob, 179 
Pony Express, 172, 175 
Powell, James, 186 
Promontory Point, 238 
Provost, Etienne, 61, 62, 64, 88 
Pueblo Homes, 4 
Pursley, James, 77 

Quivira, 6, 76 

Railroad construction, 155, 225, 

231 
Red Cloud, Chief, 187 
River, Pike seeking, 42 
Wing, 250 
Rendezvous for fur men, 63, 107, 

119 
Rio Grande River, 42 
Rocky Mountain Fur Company, 60 
Rocky Mountains, 107 
Roman Nose, Chief, 188, 190 
Roping Cattle, 223 
Roundups, 221 
Royal Gorge, 227 
Russell, Majors and Waddell, 175, 

177 

Sacajawea, 22, 24, 33, 35 
St. Louis, fur trade, 20, 45, 64 
Santa Fe trade, 79 

St. Mary's Mission, 121 

St. Ignatius' Mission, 124 

St. Paul, 38 

St. Peter's Mission, 125 
Salt Lake, 130 
San Carlos Mission^ 101 
San Diego, 87, 100, 101, 150 
Saii Francisco, Garcia de, 99 



INDEX 



263 



Santa Barbara Mission, 102 
Santa Fe, 43 

Pike enters, 42 

trade in, 79 

Trade, when establ shed, 81 

Trail, 76, 85 
Serra, Junipero, 101 
Settlers, 181 

Seven Cities of Cibola, 4 
Sheridan, Phil. R., 189 
Shoshone Falls, 56 

Indians, 22, 27, 35, 54, 204 
Sioux Indians, 9, 183, 186, 195 
Sitting Bull, Chief, 196, 199 
Smith, Jedediah, 61, 62 

death of, 81 

travels, 67 
Snake River, 55 
Snowsheds, 243 
Soldiers, 181 

Southern Pacific Railroad, 242 
South Pass, 57, 88, 95, 106, 136 

discovered, 62 
Spain, 13 

Spalding, H. H., 106 
Spanish names, 220 

Trail, 86 
Splawn, Moses, 171 
Stage coaches, 174 

hnes, 172 
Steamboat up Missouri, 73 
Stuart, Robert, 55 
Sublette, Milton and WilHam, 61, 

64,81 
Sutter, John A., 156, 161 
Surveys for railroads, 225 

Telegraph lines, 232 
Terry, Alfred H., 195 
Tetons, 54 
Thron, Jonathan, 49 



Three Forks, Montana, 24, 46, 

61, 120 
Tonquin, destruction of, 50 
Trails, 76, 78, 86, 87, 96 
Union Pacific Railroad, 233, 234, 

240 
Utah, 62 

Indians, 202 
Vaca, Cabeza de, 1, 77 
Venting brands, 222 
Verendrye, 7 

Vigilance Committees, 161 
Villard, Henry, 247 
Virginia City, Nevada, 162 

Montana, 168 
Walker, Chief, 203 

I. P., 66 
Webster- Ashburton treaty, 111,113 
Western Sea, 8, 28 
Westport, 85, 119 
Wheaton, Frank, 206 
White, John, 169 
WilHams, Bill, 151 
Whitman, Marcus, 106 

caravan of, 115 

death of, 117 

ride of, 113 
Wild Bill, 212 
Willamette Valley, 69, 106 
Wood, Leonard, 193 
Wooton, Dick, 64, 245 
Wyeth, Nathaniel, 68 
Wyoming, 35, 139 
Yellowstone National Park, 33, 
34, 201 

River, 32 

Steamboat, 73, 104 
Yosemite Falls, 66 
Young, Brigham, 126, 131 
Zuni, 2, 3, 99 



SEP 21 1911 



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